Has former Clemson star Deshaun Watson emerged as the favorite to be QB1 for the Cleveland Browns in Week 1 of the upcoming NFL season?
Watson missed all of the 2025 season, but is now healthy again. The 30-year-old is entering the final year of his deal in 2026 and is competing with second-year pro Shedeur Sanders for Cleveland’s starting quarterback job.
The Browns also have second-year QB Dillon Gabriel on their roster, as well as rookie QB Taylen Green, who was drafted by Cleveland out of Arkansas in the sixth round of the 2026 NFL Draft (No. 182 overall pick).
Coming out of Browns minicamp, Watson has taken the lead over Sanders in the team’s QB competition and has the inside track to win the starting job, according to a report from Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com.
Though Watson and Sanders both received first-team reps in minicamp practices, Watson reportedly ended up getting more reps with the starters, and Cabot wrote that Sanders “will have to dazzle the coaching staff to land atop the depth chart heading into training camp”:
Deshaun Watson emerged from the Browns’ voluntary minicamp last week with an edge over Shedeur Sanders in the two-man quarterback competition — and has the inside track to be named the Browns QB1, sources tell cleveland.com.
Coach Todd Monken hopes to declare — or at least identify — his starter by the end of Browns minicamp June 9-11, meaning Sanders has about six weeks to close the gap and try to overtake the former three-time Pro Bowler.
But Sanders has plenty of ground to make up, and he will have to dazzle the coaching staff to land atop the depth chart heading into training camp.
Watson has not played in an NFL game since he suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon tear during Cleveland’s Week 7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 20, 2024. Less than three months after his initial tear, Watson tore his Achilles for the second time and underwent a second surgery in January 2025 to repair it, forcing him to miss the entire 2025 season.
In March 2022, Watson signed a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract with the Browns after being traded from the Houston Texans to the Browns, who gave away a bunch of draft picks (including three first-round picks) in the deal.
Of course, Watson has faced plenty of adversity in recent seasons, on and off the field. He played in just six games in his first season with Cleveland in 2022 after having to serve a suspension and then was limited to just six games in 2023 and seven in 2024 due to season-ending injuries, before missing all of the 2025 campaign due to injury.
A three-time Pro Bowler during his time with the Texans, Watson has a 66.2 completion percentage for his career with 17,904 passing yards and 123 passing touchdowns with 48 interceptions in 73 career games with the Texans and Browns since being selected by Houston in the first round (12th overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft.
In 19 games for the Browns, Watson has completed 61.2 percent of his passes for 3,365 yards and 19 touchdowns with 12 interceptions.
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam recently told reporters that Watson has a “fresh start” with Monken, Cleveland’s first-year head coach, and that Watson has a “great chance” to be the Browns’ starting quarterback this season.
“Deshaun has a great chance, fresh start, offensive-minded coach, who has in his past been able to work with all kinds of different quarterbacks and make them successful,” Haslam said, via a report from ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi on March 30. “So, Deshaun has a great chance to do that now. We talked to him the other day, he said he weighs the [least] he has in several years. He’s in great shape, he’ll be [in Cleveland] on April 7 when we start [the offseason workout program]. Let’s see what Deshaun can do. We’re all excited.”