While GM Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns have been plenty active to start the 2026 offseason, they remain exactly where they started at the quarterback position.
In the opinion of one prominent NFL insider, that may be by design.
During Thursday morning’s episode of Good Morning Football on NFL Network, Mike Garafolo provided an update on Deshaun Watson and the team's looming quarterback competition. Browns fans would love to believe that Shedeur Sanders, who started Cleveland’s final seven games of the 2025 season, is currently in the driver’s seat, after the team passed on addressing its QB room during Phase I of free agency.
Garafolo made that sound like wishful thinking. He told the GMFB panel Thursday that Watson remains firmly in the mix to start for the Browns in 2026, going as far as placing him in the “pole position” for the job ahead of April’s NFL Draft.
“Does Deshaun Watson have a chance to be the Browns’ starter in 2026? Ah, yes he does,” Garafolo said on air. “And in my opinion, he’s got a great shot. In fact, at this point, if Deshaun Watson is the starter Week 1 for the Cleveland Browns, this guy right here is not going to be surprised.
Now there will probably be some kind of open competition that they’ll have throughout the summer. The Browns have done that before. They had one last year — a four-way competition last year in training camp for the Browns, so I would expect that to be the way that it goes. But you’re paying (Watson) anyway. He’s on the roster. He was previously an accomplished quarterback. There’s been a lot that’s happened off the field. I understand that. But to me, Deshaun Watson might even be in the pole position at this point to be the Browns’ starter for this upcoming season.”
Browns fans might be stuck in a familiar nightmare during the 2026 season
At this point, the reason Watson remains on the Browns’ roster is well known, and it has nothing to do with his talent. His contract carries an unavoidable $131.1 million dead-cap hit, which will keep him tethered to the team until 2027. Ever since his contract was adjusted in December of 2024, the team’s been preparing an exit plan. The first steps came in the form of salary conversions to clear cap space in 2025 and 2026, with the last of those moves executed earlier this month. The next step is to carry Watson through this full league year, and release him with a post-June 1 designation in March of 2027.
Watson’s past success in the league is impossible to ignore, but it’s also undeniable that his time in Cleveland will end next year as soon as the timing’s right from a cap perspective. He’s no longer part of the Browns’ future. It’s just the opposite, actually. Handing him the reins to kick off the Todd Monken era would be a blatant slap in the face to a fanbase that's been impatiently waiting for the team to move on from the biggest trade and contract blunder in franchise history.
Cleveland completely botched its quarterback room in 2025 following news of Watson’s re-ruptured Achilles tendon in January. Berry and company tripped over themselves from March through December, and ended the year with arguably the worst quarterback situation in the league.
The solution can’t be to simply run it back with the “addition” of a former Pro Bowler, now better known as the Ghost of Deshaun Watson. Browns fans deserve better, and the team needs a real competition this summer that leads to straight-line progress, and not figure eights.
The Browns passed on competing for Malik Willis in free agency. They let an extremely team-friendly option in Tua Tagovailoa slip away to Kevin Stefanski and the Atlanta Falcons. Short of a bold move on Day 1 of the draft for Alabama’s Ty Simpson — a move fans seem to want no part of — the status quo, with potentially a Day 3 flyer added to the mix via April's draft, seems to be the current plan.
All Browns fans can do is hope that Sanders is up for the challenge.