The Cleveland Browns have had an exciting offseason, so there’s some curiosity about the team heading into the 2026 season. Cleveland has a new head coach in Todd Monken, and while Myles Garrett is no longer on the roster, the Browns have a promising young group of talented players. That gives people a reason to be excited about the team’s future.
The one thing that’s still causing some hesitancy in Cleveland is the uncertainty at quarterback. Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson are engaged in a position battle, and both players had strong offseasons that give them a chance to continue that battle into camp.
Obviously, the best-case scenario for the Browns would be Sanders winning the job and establishing himself as the team’s franchise quarterback. The worst-case scenario, though? It’s not Watson winning the job, nor is it discovering that neither quarterback is the answer, like Bleacher Report recently suggested.
The actual worst-case scenario for Cleveland in 2026 will be the team winning enough games to keep them out of a high draft pick, but doing so with bad quarterback play.
Browns can’t afford to be an average team without a good quarterback in 2026
In this scenario, it doesn’t really matter who wins the job, because the outcome is bad quarterback play regardless. If that’s the case, both Sanders and Watson will likely end up playing throughout the year. The problem would come if neither guy is good, but the Browns just find ways to win games.
It may seem like those two things can’t happen at the same time, but they absolutely can. If a team has a really good defense and special teams units, as well as a good run game, they could find their way to around nine wins — even with subpar quarterback play.
That usually places teams in the teens in the draft order. Even in a deep quarterback class, like 2027 is expected to be, that may be too late to draft the caliber of quarterback prospect Browns fans are hoping for.
The good news is that Cleveland has a lot of draft capital, so the franchise could trade up if needed. However, it would obviously be better for the Browns to hold on to their picks. That’s why the best paths forward for Cleveland would be Shedeur Sanders establishing himself as a franchise quarterback, or the team being bad enough to land one. Anything in the middle could leave the franchise stuck in a cycle of mediocrity.
Add us as a preferred source on Google