The Browns' quarterback competition has been the talk of the town in Cleveland ever since the conclusion of the NFL Draft. Foregoing highly-ranked prospects such as Ty Simpson in the first round and third-rounders Carson Beck and Drew Allar led fans to an unmistakable conclusion.
In 2026, the Browns will most likely be quarterbacked by Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders. Dillon Gabriel and Taylen Green are theoretically in the competition, though it would likely take severe food poisoning at a Watson-Sanders dinner party on the eve of the season opener for either of them to get the nod in Week 1.
Say what you will about Sanders, but it's hard to find a quarterback whose fan base is more done with a player than Deshaun Watson. While Sanders has been a lightning rod for attention in his own right, let's be clear that none of it is in the same universe as Watson's. Fans don't need to feel a moral tug-of-war when Sanders takes the field.
At this point, it seems the myth of Sanders has overtaken reality. Even when he says nothing in the realm of controversial, he is made out to be sending messages even in silence. Such is the price of popularity.
As reported by Daniel Kaplan of Front Office Sports, for the 2025 season, Shedeur Sanders received $17.7 million from the NFL Players Association. This payment comes in the form of group licensing income, which rewards players for their likeness on jerseys, trading cards, video games, and other collectibles.
Browns fans have spoken, and they want to see Shedeur Sanders get a fair shake
That figure seems astronomical — and it is — but to contextualize it further, Sanders' $17.7 million payday crushed the previous record of $9.5 million, earned by Tom Brady in the 2021–2022 season. That, as Sanders likes to say, is legendary. He is flanked on the list by his former Colorado teammate Travis Hunter ($12.8 million) and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ($8 million).
Now, as far as what this has to do with what happens on the field, it appears over the last few months that Browns ownership (as well as the media) has been trying to soft launch Deshaun Watson as a true first-string QB option again. Owner Jimmy Haslam will have to fork out $46 million to Watson this year no matter how ill it makes him, and some, including head coach Todd Monken, may be thinking if you have to pay him you might as well play him.
The problem is that this directly describes the sunk cost fallacy. The fallacy is defined by Charles Schwab as "the irrational idea that you should keep investing in something just because you've already invested time or money in it."
Ring a bell? Nothing that has happened from the moment Jimmy Haslam called Watson a swing and a miss to present day has changed that reality.
While Sanders' debut in 2025 hardly screamed superstar in the making, it would be disingenuous to say he looked out of place on the field. Browns fans have a keen idea of what that looks like, after seeing Dillon Gabriel flounder last season.
Monken needs to mean it when he says he's all about winning football games
It would be a dangerous game to start letting the fans make each decision. The old adage about the backup quarterback being the most beloved player on the team has stood the test of time for a reason. In this case, though, the fans are right. The Browns' faithful didn't dole out their hard-earned cash on Shedeur Sanders jerseys and merchandise for memes. They saw potential. They saw a late-round draft pick fighting his tail off for a team that was mostly checked out with a 3-12 record before back-to-back divisional victories.
That's inspiration and hope, something a Cleveland QB hasn't provided since Baker Mayfield had the reins. The jury's still out on Shedeur Sanders. The Browns must answer the question of what he is at the NFL level with the best supporting cast they could offer. That entails making him the starter in Week 1. Should he flop, they can always pivot to Deshaun Watson, who has little to prove or gain at this stage of his career.
To avoid the circular argument of a weakened supporting cast, Sanders should get the nod when the team is at its healthiest. Not when they're 1-7 with 10 players on injured reserve and he's forced to run like a chicken with its head cut off, again. Besides, there is simply no appeal to Deshaun Watson at this point in time.
Todd Monken's mind-numbing quote about what he's seen on tape from Deshaun Watson many moons ago rings hollow. I also needed diapers once. The point is: things change. Watson last suited up for an NFL game 589 days ago. The last win? 624 days ago. Most harrowing of all, his last game for the Texans — which is also coincidentally the last time he looked like a franchise quarterback — was 1,975 days ago.
Monken can try to explain away Watson's bad tape by claiming he didn't know what Kevin Stefanski was asking him to do. In doing that, he loses all credibility, though. The head coach has also said he's seen Watson dazzle on tape — also from a time when Monken had no idea what Watson was being asked to do. Does he think Stefanski asked Watson to play badly? Surely not. Browns fans won't go for it either.
If Monken is who he says he is, he'll roll with Sanders. The smidgen of comfort taken from Watson's 73 career games played should be counterbalanced by the fact that the last 19, the ones that happened in Cleveland, have been abysmal. If Monken can't see that, then the Browns might be in trouble again.
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