Deshaun Watson Favoured To Lead Browns Amid Shedeur Sanders Competition

The Browns are holding off on naming a starting quarterback with all of their spring practices complete, and will head to training camp without anyone officially atop their depth chart.

But around the league, there is a strong sense that ownership will make it quite clear that they are not paying Deshaun Watson another $46M to sit on the bench at the conclusion of his contract that will pay out $230M (all of it fully guaranteed at signing). 

And even if Shedeur Sanders seems to be a viable option through preseason games, the threshold for him to beat out Watson will be viewed by management through a financial prism.

New head coach Todd Monken is no shrinking violet, and he is very much interested in seeing what Sanders can do in his second season in the league, according to numerous sources who know him well, but the economic realities here are more stark and in contract that another QB competition in the NFL, with Sanders on a fifth-round rookie contract. 

The Watson signing has been an unmitigated disaster, and ownership is relishing any chance to frame it even marginally better and try to get some level of compensatory pick for him when he departs as a free agent.

“Haslam wants Watson to play and try to earn that money,” one GM said. 

“Everybody in that building knows it.”

Is This Truly A Fair Fight?

Monken may not be quick to acquiesce to that reality. But he’s also not a fool himself. 

Unless Sanders so out-distances himself from Watson, and keep in mind this is a tanking/rebuilding team that lacks the kind of offensive personnel that’s going to lift a novice QB, to a degree that just doesn’t seem likely, other front offices continue to see this as a competition in name only.

Monken will frame things the right way outwardly and, confident as he is, coaches who know him well believe he thinks he can exceed expectations with either the disgraced former Pro Bowl or the prospect who fell all the way to the back end of the draft. 

But money talks in this league, and this is an ownership group that has continually meddled and created major issues for coaches, which is how they ended up with Watson in the first place.

“I can't decide now because I think both have earned the opportunity to continue to compete once we put the pads on,” Monken said at the conclusion of practice last week.

If Watson stays healthy, we expect the job to be his.