Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken wants to decide early whether Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders will be the starting quarterback, with Dillon Gabriel also in the mix and the team considering using its two first‑round picks on a draft quarterback.
PHOENIX – Who will start at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns this year? It’s a question that’s become an annual tradition for nearly three decades. The Browns have had 42 different starting quarterbacks since 1999.
The answer to the Browns’ quarterback question is to be determined at this point. Go figure. New Browns coach Todd Monken would like to gain some clarity on his QB room within the next few months.
“You’d love to be able to come out of the spring with a depth chart,” Monken said Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings. “That doesn’t mean there’s still not competition, but I do think you have to narrow the reps, or at least balance up the reps of who you anticipate has come out of the spring, certainly in a position to be a starter.”
Deshaun Watson is healthy after missing all of 2025 because a season-ending Achilles injury in October of 2024. Dillon Gabriel started six games last year but lost his starting spot to Shedeur Sanders, who finished the year as QB1, and even had a controversial Pro Bowl invitation.
None of the three quarterbacks vying for the starting spot can boast recent game film that warrants any assurance of the QB1 position, and the Browns could also draft a quarterback early in this year. Cleveland currently owns two first-round picks.
Still, Watson and Sanders seem to be the leaders in the clubhouse.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam spoke highly of Watson with a group of local reporters at the owners meeting.
“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 to reporters. “So, Deshaun has a great chance to do that now.”
Haslam’s comments are a complete 180 from a year ago, when he said the Watson trade was a “big swing-and-miss.”
Then there’s Sanders, who recently changed his number back to No. 2, and ended last year with some momentum as Cleveland’s starter for the team’s final seven games. Sanders finished 3-4 as a starter and the Browns won their final two games.
“It’s too early to really evaluate him, other than it’s been great that he’s been in the building,” Monken said of Sanders. “It’s refreshing to see a player that recognizes where he’s at and where he wants to get to.”
