Cleveland Browns quarterback and former Clemson star Deshaun 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.

ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi and Jeremy Fowler gave an update on Watson’s situation and future, reporting that Watson is open to staying with the Browns beyond the 2026 season, should “things go well” during the upcoming campaign.

“Watson, who hasn’t spoken to the media since tearing the Achilles, has no ill will toward Cleveland, according to a source close to him. ‘He understands why fans are frustrated,’ the source said,” Oyefusi and Fowler wrote. “… The source close to Watson said the QB is focused solely on the upcoming season but believes he isn’t against staying in Cleveland beyond 2026 if things go well. ‘I think he would be open to that,’ the source said.”

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.

Last month, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported that coming out of Browns minicamp, Watson had taken the lead over Sanders in the team’s QB competition and had the inside track to win the starting job.

“Ball’s coming out great,” new Browns head coach Todd Monken said about Watson’s play after the team’s first voluntary veteran minicamp practice, via ESPN. “Looks great. … I can’t get into his body to know how his body felt today, but he moved around great. And the ball came out great.”

The Watson vs. Sanders QB battle now heats up again, as the Browns began their OTAs on May 19.

ESPN’s Fowler weighed in on what he’s hearing about Watson and Cleveland’s QB competition going into OTAs.

“[Watson] will be a factor in OTAs when they start going with first-team reps, second-team reps,” Fowler said on SportsCenter, via Bleacher Report. “So, he’s been a factor already on the practice field. I’m told he’s hit it off with Todd Monken, who’s got an offensive concept, some elements that Watson has run in the past and been his best at; a little bit of a departure from what they were running with Kevin Stefanski.

“So, talking to people around the league, they believe that Watson could eventually earn this job because he’s a veteran presence and if he can get back to just 70 or 80 percent of what he was from those Houston days, maybe they can sort of salvage this trade; get one productive year out of him.”

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer also gave his take on Cleveland’s quarterback battle.

“There’s going to be a lot of noise around the Browns quarterback situation, but I do believe head coach Todd Monken is going to be fair about it,” Breer wrote. “What does that mean? To me, it means no one’s getting anointed. The best man will win. And the cool thing about it is if you look at the new Browns coach’s history, he has enough schematic clubs in his bag to make it work for whoever he picks—be it Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders or whoever else.”

James Palmer, an NFL Insider for Bleacher Report, thinks the Browns owe it to themselves to look seriously at Watson as their starting QB, considering the heavy investment they made in him. Palmer believes the worst-case scenario for Cleveland would be for Watson to bounce back and perform well for another team next season, without the Browns having taken a hard look at him.

Palmer also thinks it would be easier for the team to go with Watson as their QB1 off the bat and then shift to Sanders if Watson doesn’t work out, rather than start with Sanders initially and then shift to Watson – unless Sanders wins the QB battle outright and it isn’t close.

“I think you really do take a hard look at Deshaun Watson and see if he wins this job,” Palmer said. “If it’s close, I would think that Deshaun Watson gets the nod, because it’s easier to go from him to Shedeur than go from Shedeur to Deshaun, if the young kid starts the season. Now, if Shedeur wins the job outright and just beats him clearly, and if there’s no question about it, it’s not a problem, either. Your fifth-round pick went out there and won the starting job against a former top pick and one of the better quarterbacks, a while ago, in the NFL. So, that’s great.

“But if it’s close, and I think there is a chance Deshaun Watson is their starter to start the season, I think the Browns kind of owe it to themselves, with everything they’ve invested, to see if something’s there. The worst thing that could happen is he goes out and plays brilliantly for another team next year, and you never really took another look at him. I know they’ve given him opportunities for sure. There’s been injuries with the shoulder and Achilles, and he tore it twice. But at the same time, I do think they owe it to themselves, with all the investment they made, to go and take a hard, hard look at him.”

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.

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.