The Browns’ quarterback competition between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders could become clearer this week.
Sports commentator Terry Pluto says the Browns are giving each quarterback an opportunity to make his case. Watson started the preseason opener Saturday in Chicago. Sanders is expected to start Saturday at home against Buffalo.
“How many of these (quarterback competitions) have we been through?" Pluto said. "12,000 of them? I say 12,00 because in the last three years, the Brown's have had 12 different quarterback changes."
Watson came to Cleveland in 2022 after the team sent three first round picks and other draft capital to Houston and gave him a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract.
His time in Cleveland has been marked by a suspension, injuries and inconsistent play. He has appeared in just 19 regular season games since joining the Browns, with his last appearance coming in October 2024 when he suffered a torn Achilles.
Pluto said new Browns head coach Todd Monken wants to see what Watson has left, particularly in the final year of Watson's contract. Pluto believes Watson will ultimately be the team’s starter when Cleveland opens the regular season Sept. 13.
“There's kind of conventional wisdom in the NFL that if you have a veteran and a young player and your team is not particularly good, maybe you start the veteran first and then after he struggles in a few games, then you go to the kid," Pluto said. And I got a feeling that's how this is going to play out.”
Pluto also believes Monken is feeling pressure in his first NFL head coaching job.
“You're Todd Monken, you're 60 years old," Pluto said. "So, you've waited all these years to become a head coach in the NFL. You know that in the last two years, the Browns have won eight games and lost 26. You are supposed to win some games. You could be one (year) and out. And so my guess is he's looking at this and trying to decide with Deshaun Watson, (does he) give me a better chance to at least win a few games early in the year? Especially because I'm asking these guys to learn a new offense, as opposed to Shedeur Sanders, who just is in his second season.”
Watson has not been embraced by the Cleveland fan base, given the dozens of sexual misconduct allegations he settled and the NFL suspension that followed in 2023. Pluto said the team is more concerned with winning than public perception.
“Their feeling was, Deshaun Watson in 2020, when they last saw him on the field (with Houston), was going to win enough games that they would basically ride out the bad publicity and winning would be the perfume that would make it all smell better," Pluto said. "I have to admit, I was at a training camp early in the season in the training period, looking, (and) I cannot believe this is year five of Deshaun Watson, we're still doing this. Still talking about some of the same things, which is he's only played 19 games in the last four years. And just an odd feeling that I had of like ... here we go again.”
Pluto said the Browns could turn to Sanders if Watson cannot produce early in the season.
“If none of this works very (well) by the end of the season, we'll just go get another quarterback for next year because the Browns have always been on the eternal quest for a quarterback," Pluto said. "I look at these guys and I go, this is just more guys on the list of Browns quarterbacks playing until they ever find their next, frankly, their next Bernie Kosar.”
