Why Browns are giving Deshaun Watson another chance to be QB1

DESHAUN WATSON — WHO has been out of the public eye for the past 19 months — was the first quarterback to take part in individual drills when the Cleveland Browns hit the practice field April 21 for the first of their three-day voluntary minicamp.

The 30-year-old faked a toss to his right and threw a pass to a staffer about 20 yards downfield. Watson repeated the rep before ceding to Shedeur Sanders, who followed him in completing the drill. Dillon Gabriel rounded out the group.

Watson and Sanders split the first-team reps in team drills, marking the first snapshot of a quarterback competition centering squarely on the two players — and a reminder of the crossroads Cleveland faces in its ongoing search for a franchise quarterback.

That Watson is even here qualifies as a mild upset.

A year ago, it appeared Watson had played his final snap in Cleveland — and possibly the NFL. He was recovering from two tears to his right Achilles, and Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, speaking at the league meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, labeled his team’s 2022 blockbuster trade for Watson a “big swing-and-miss.”

Watson sat out the entirety of the 2025 season as he continued his rehab. Gabriel, the team’s third-round pick in 2025, started six games, and Sanders, a fifth-round pick last year, started seven games. With both earning a combined 4-9 record and each posting a QBR that would have ranked last among qualified players, Cleveland is still searching for answers for its decades-long quarterback question.

With Watson healthy and entering the final year of his fully guaranteed $230 million contract, the veteran is getting what amounts to a clean slate on the field with new coach Todd Monken. Both sides are open-minded about what the future holds for what has been a disappointing four-year run with Watson in Cleveland.

Now highly motivated and playing in an offense that caters to his strengths, Watson has a chance to affect one of the most controversial trades in NFL history with a few steps: Win the starting quarterback job; stay healthy and on the field; provide steady play in leading the offense; and help a franchise that has drafted three quarterbacks in the past two years, including 2026 sixth-round rookie Taylen Green.

“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 him successful,” Haslam said at the league meetings in Phoenix two months ago. “So Deshaun has a great chance to do that now.”

SINCE THE BROWNS traded three first-round picks and three other draft selections to the Houston Texans for Watson in March 2022 and subsequently gave him a five-year, $230 million contract — then an NFL record for guarantees on a single contract by $80 million — Watson has played in only 19 games because of suspension and injuries.

Watson began his tenure in Cleveland by serving an 11-game suspension and paying a $5 million fine after more than two dozen women accused him of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during massage sessions. Two Texas grand juries declined to pursue criminal charges against Watson a week before his trade to Cleveland, but he served his suspension and completed a treatment program after the NFL and the NFL Players Association reached a settlement in August 2022 on his disciplinary matter.

Watson went 3-3 as a starter in the Browns’ final six games of the 2022 season but showed rust (40.4 QBR) as he played his way back into form after more than a year away from the game. He then missed the final nine games of the 2023 season, including Cleveland’s wild-card loss to the Texans, after undergoing season-ending surgery on his throwing shoulder.

A right Achilles tendon tear on Oct. 20, 2024, sidelined Watson for the remainder of the season and all of the 2025 season after he tore the Achilles again and underwent a second surgery in January 2025. Watson was cleared a couple of weeks before the Browns opened his 21-day practice PUP window on Dec. 3, but the team maintained a cautious approach with his rehab, according to a league source.

A source close to Watson said sitting out last season was “the best thing that could’ve happened to him. He wasn’t rushed back onto the field, and he had time to reflect on how he can get the best out of this year, and he’s excited.”

Since joining Cleveland four years ago, Watson has completed 61.2% of his passes and has thrown 19 touchdown passes to 12 interceptions in 19 games. He didn’t eclipse 200 passing yards in any of his seven starts in 2024 before his Achilles injury. Watson’s 33.1 Total QBR would rank last among qualifying passers if he played enough to qualify. But Monken, the former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator who was hired in January to replace fired coach Kevin Stefanski, referenced Watson’s résumé as a three-time Pro Bowler in Houston when talking about the prospect of working with him.

“Any time that you have a player that at one time has exhibited the skill set at an elite level,” Monken said at the NFL combine in February, “I think you’re always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we might be able to get that out of him again, and I think that’s how you should look at every player. I’ve said that. You guys have heard me say it. I’m going to let it play out.”

Adding more to the idea of a fresh start in Cleveland: Monken said he hadn’t reviewed much of Watson’s injury-riddled play with the Browns.

“To try and look at that film and say, ‘That’s Deshaun Watson,’ is unfair,” Monken said at the league meetings. “I don’t know the system they changed to when [former offensive coordinator] Ken Dorsey came in and what they were running, I don’t know that. I don’t know what they were asking him to do.

“Or the year before when the Browns came over and beat the Ravens there [in 2023]. I don’t know that. I just know what I’ve seen over the years. I’ve seen a really good football player. And we’re hoping to be able to tap in to that. I know he’s excited, and we’re excited to work with him.”

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THE BROWNS ARE banking on Monken, a 60-year-old first-time NFL head coach, to lead the franchise into a new era of meaningful football after he spent the past three seasons in Baltimore and helped guide quarterback Lamar Jackson to his second NFL Most Valuable Player award in 2023.

Cleveland’s inability to find a starting-caliber replacement for Watson in the past 12 months, though, has the franchise holding on to the past.

The Browns finished 3-14 in 2024 and fell one spot short of the No. 1 draft pick, which would have allowed them to draft quarterback Cam Ward. Cleveland still overhauled its QB room last offseason, trading for 2022 first-round pick Kenny Pickett, reuniting with Joe Flacco and drafting Gabriel and Sanders.

A look into how the QB dominoes played out in 2025:

— Pickett suffered a hamstring injury in the first week of training camp and was traded at the roster cutdown deadline.

— Flacco began the 2025 season as the starter but was benched after a 1-3 start and traded to the Cincinnati Bengals the following week.

— Gabriel took over for Flacco but mustered only one win as a starter and a 31.4 QBR before sustaining a concussion in Week 11 that paved the way for Sanders to make his debut.

— Sanders started the final seven games of the season and led the Browns to victories in their final two games, pushing Cleveland out of position to land the No. 1 pick and select Fernando Mendoza. Sanders finished his rookie season with a 3-4 record but registered an 18.9 QBR, the fifth-lowest mark among 696 quarterbacks with at least 200 pass attempts in a season in the QBR era (since 2006).

This theme is not new to the Browns, who have started a league-high 42 quarterbacks since the franchise returned in 1999. Cleveland hasn’t seen a quarterback start back-to-back seasons in full since Baker Mayfield from 2019 to 2020. The common thread is Monken, who was with Mayfield as Cleveland’s offensive coordinator in 2019 and is now tasked with improving one of the more jumbled quarterback rooms in the NFL.

“I think it’s an open competition,” Monken said at the NFL combine in February. “I mean, I don’t know why it wouldn’t be an open competition. I don’t mean that saying it harshly, but I don’t think there’s enough on film over the last couple years, one way or the other, to say, ‘Boy, we have our starter at quarterback yet.’ Whether internally or externally.”

The Browns had interest in free agent quarterback Malik Willis but not at the three-year, $67.5 million contract he signed with the Miami Dolphins, according to a source with knowledge of the team’s thinking.

With limited starting options available, Cleveland used the majority of its resources to rebuild an older offensive line that saw six players hit free agency and support the incumbent passers with an improved supporting cast. The Browns added three veteran offensive linemen during free agency — Tytus Howard, Zion Johnson and Elgton Jenkins — and used eight of their 10 draft picks on offense. This included both of their first-round selections, left tackle Spencer Fano and wide receiver KC Concepcion.

Cleveland drafted Green (No. 182), who projects as a developmental QB in his rookie season; Browns general manager Andrew Berry said the 6-foot-6, 230-pound passer has “rare physical gifts” but “is going to need some polish with his game.”

At the league meetings in March, Haslam said Berry would be “keeping a close eye” on the 2027 draft class that is already being projected to produce multiple franchise quarterbacks.

“We thought this time last year, this was going to be a great quarterback class,” Haslam said. “Maybe it will be, but if it doesn’t shapen up … I think you just have to see how things play out.”

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WATSON IS OWED $46 million in the final year of his contract, but the Browns insist his exorbitant contract and looming free agency aren’t playing a major role in Monken’s decision on which quarterback starts.

The Browns, who restructured Watson’s contract to spread his cap hit across multiple seasons, could designate Watson as a post-June 1 release next offseason. The move would incur an $86.2 million dead cap charge — it would trail only Tua Tagovailoa‘s release from the Dolphins for the largest in league history — but it would be split between the 2027 and 2028 seasons.

“We’re probably just more focused on performance and best players,” Berry said at the league meetings. “Certainly time horizon factors into that, but just with any veteran player, there’s no rule against extending the player’s contract if they perform and they do well. So I wouldn’t necessarily box it into any one approach. It really will be performance based.”

Watson’s relationship with Browns fans, many of whom were reluctant to accept him in the aftermath of the allegations made against him, can be best described as polarizing.

The last time Watson was on the field in October 2024, the struggling quarterback was met with boos from fans during pregame introductions at Huntington Bank Field. When Watson tore his right Achilles, scores of fans cheered as he lay on the ground in pain and left the field on a cart.

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.

J.W. Johnson, managing partner of the Haslam Sports Group that owns the Browns, acknowledged the fan frustration that could come with Watson returning to his starting role.

“He’s got nothing to lose,” Johnson told ESPN Cleveland in an interview last month. “And if he’s our starting quarterback, I know that there are people that probably won’t be supportive, but they should need to be supportive as much as they can. And if he plays great, then awesome. If he doesn’t, then it is what it is, and we’re looking ahead to the future.”

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.

Watson has maintained a good rapport with the team and Jimmy Haslam, despite the blunt “swing-and-miss” comments. The Haslams attended Watson’s wedding last July. After Watson’s second Achilles surgery, he remained around the team and conducted the bulk of his rehab in Cleveland. Berry praised Watson for his presence in meeting rooms during the 2025 season, when he offered his veteran advice to Gabriel and Sanders. Watson even traveled with the team on the road for the first time to support Sanders during the rookie’s first start Nov. 23 in Las Vegas.

Though Cleveland struggled to find alignment between Stefanski’s under-center, West Coast scheme and Watson’s affinity for shotgun, spread concepts, the source close to Watson said he had a better relationship with Stefanski than outsiders might think.

“The way [Stefanski] wanted him to play didn’t fit his style,” the source said.

The source believes Monken’s scheme, which is rooted in the Air Raid offense and includes a bevy of spread concepts, fits Watson’s skill set and could give him the ability to be “reactionary, see things and feel plays developing.”

“This can be a good thing for Monken because he’s got a veteran that he can play with low expectations,” an NFL personnel evaluator told ESPN. “If [Watson is] even 80% of what he was, that’s a win. But he just hasn’t played a lot of football and has a long injury history, so it’s hard to truly know what you have.”

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TUESDAY MARKS THE first of 10 OTA practices that will be followed by a three-day mandatory minicamp in June, a crucial stretch for the quarterback competition that Monken hopes will reveal his starter for the 2026 season.

Monken has said he wants to enter training camp, which begins in late July, with a clear pecking order at the game’s most important position but that he won’t rush his decision.

Internally, there is the belief that Watson, despite his injury history, still possesses the physical ability he had as a Pro Bowler in Houston.

“Ball’s coming out great,” Monken said about Watson’s play following the team’s first voluntary veteran minicamp practice. “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.”

As for Sanders, Berry said in January that he is a “work in progress,” though the former Colorado standout has drawn the intrigue of Monken because of what the head coach has called “elite playmaking ability.”

Stefanski and his staff took a slow approach to Sanders as a rookie, relegating him to second- and third-team reps throughout training camp. Monken has said reps won’t be equal between the quarterbacks and might change from one practice to another, but Sanders is expected to get a legitimate opportunity to compete alongside Watson.

The organization’s focus remains on improving from last season’s 5-12 finish with a bolstered supporting cast on offense and improved quarterback play among whoever emerges as the Browns’ starter.

“You’d love to be able to come out of the spring with a depth chart,” Monken said at the league meetings. “That doesn’t mean there’s still not competition.”