Deshaun Watson is getting the first turn in Cleveland’s preseason quarterback rotation, with the Browns announcing Wednesday that he will start Saturday’s opener against the Chicago Bears.
It will be Watson’s first game action since he tore his Achilles during the 2024 season, a return that has been a long time coming. The veteran has not taken a live snap since October 2024, when two separate Achilles ruptures ended most of two seasons.
“I’m super excited,” Watson said, according to the team’s website. “All the hard work that I put in with the training staff, with my team, my personal team, to get to this stage has been tremendous for me. So, I’m super excited for those opportunities and can’t wait for it.”
Cleveland’s plan calls for Watson to play the first half against Chicago and get a two-minute drill before handing things over to the rest of the quarterback room. Shedeur Sanders will get the same setup the following week, when he starts against the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 22.
The Browns are treating this as a controlled evaluation, but the outside conversation has already gotten louder. Former NFL quarterback Chris Simms has spent much of this week arguing that Cleveland should simply give Sanders the job, calling more reps for Watson pointless, according to ClutchPoints. ESPN analyst and former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum also questioned why the Browns would keep prioritizing Watson’s starts over their younger quarterback this deep into camp.
Watson’s time in Cleveland has been defined by setbacks. Since the Browns landed him in a blockbuster 2022 trade and signed him to a fully guaranteed $230 million deal, he has dealt with a season-ending shoulder injury in 2023, the first Achilles tear in 2024 and then a second rupture while recovering. He appeared in just one game last season before that latest injury shut him down again.
Sanders, meanwhile, enters this stretch with momentum from his rookie season. He started Cleveland’s final seven games of 2025, throwing seven touchdowns against 10 interceptions and finishing with a 68.1 passer rating on a team that went 5-12. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to make him the fan favorite in this summer’s competition.
Head coach Todd Monken has continued to insist the battle is still alive, even with Watson taking the bulk of the first-team reps in recent days.
“I have my reasons for how it’s going to go, and it’s still a competition,” Monken said. “We’re excited to watch guys practice today, let alone on Saturday, and then next week against Buffalo, and we’ll get a chance to see them both.
Every week we’ll assess it. It’ll be a little bit more difficult with the player that doesn’t play as much this week or the other quarterbacks, right?
We’ll be able to assess the quarterback that started and how he played and when the other quarterbacks came in and then the opposite will be next week against Buffalo.”
That approach gives each quarterback the same basic stage: a first-half audition in one preseason game, plus a two-minute drill, with a joint practice against Buffalo the week of Aug. 20 offering one more chance to sort things out. Monken has said he expects a clearer read after both games, with Cleveland set to open the regular season against Jacksonville on Sept. 13.
For now, the Browns are sticking with their process. Watson goes first against Chicago, Sanders follows against Buffalo, and the competition keeps moving one series at a time.
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