Based on the latest reporting from Berea, there’s a real chance that the Cleveland Browns have been planning to ride things out with Deshaun Watson all along.
If that turns out to be the case, Browns fans will have every right to let the team have it. It could get ugly in Berea, and team brass would only have itself to blame.
Despite reports that Watson is currently tracking to beat out Shedeur Sanders for the Browns’ starting quarterback job this season, there’s still a lot of ground to cover between now and early September. Watson’s $46 million base salary and experience are undeniable factors, but the best man for the job will still have to prove himself on the field during training camp, starting in late July.
If Watson’s clearly the guy? There’s no PR spin that could save owner Jimmy Haslam and his franchise from that bleep-storm coming their way.
The Browns’ approach at QB this offseason makes less sense by the day
Sanders may not be ready to be one of 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL. That would track for a 24-year-old developmental prospect who fell to the fifth round a year ago.
What doesn’t track is the Browns’ planning around Sanders. They knew Watson and his brutal contract weren’t going away until 2027, and they inexplicably passed on adding legitimate competition at every turn.
Free agent quarterback Malik Willis made a lot of sense for the Browns this offseason as an ideal scheme fit for head coach Todd Monken. Despite speculation that Willis could command upwards of $30 million per year, that wasn’t the case. He wound up landing with the Miami Dolphins on a three-year deal worth $67.5 million with $45 million in guarantees.
The idea that the Browns couldn’t justify that type of contract is simply not true. They just gave guard Zion Johnson $32.4 million in guarantees. Willis’ market wound up being a bargain based on the initial projections, and if the Browns viewed him as a potential upgrade to Watson, they easily could have beaten Miami’s number and made the numbers work.
The real problem has nothing to do with money. Willis’ 2026 salary cap number is just $5.7 million, according to Spotrac. The Browns are projected to have over $75 million in 2027 cap space, per Over the Cap. The core issue is perception. Paying Watson a top-10 base salary for this 2026 season is bad enough; it looks even worse if the Browns pay that salary for him to hold a clipboard.
The only addition the Browns made to their quarterback room this offseason was Taylen Green, their sixth-round draft pick out of Arkansas. The team was tied to Alabama’s Ty Simpson throughout the pre-draft process. Browns fans hated the idea of using a first- or second-round draft pick on Simpson, but he wound up going No. 13 overall to the Los Angeles Rams. Cleveland could have given its quarterback competition a major jolt by spending the No. 9 overall pick on the consensus No. 2 QB in the class.
Cleveland obviously crushed the 2026 draft. The decision to pass on Simpson in favor of Utah offensive tackle Spencer Fano is impossible to argue with. In a vacuum, it was clearly the right call.
But if the Browns’ decision later this summer is to stick with Watson as their starting quarterback? It will be fair game for Browns fans to look back and criticize everything.
Money and egos aside, there’s no way that Watson, with his struggles in 2024 and back-to-back Achilles injuries since, was the team’s best option to lead a young and revamped offense under Monken this year. The Browns deserve all the criticism coming their way if that indeed ends up being the case.
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