The Cleveland Browns have opened the season by handing the job back to Deshaun Watson, but that choice already feels like a short-term bet. Pittsburgh gets to watch from the other sideline, and by the time the Steelers meet the Browns in Week 4, this whole quarterback plan could look very different.
Watson was named Cleveland’s Week 1 starter earlier this week, a move that makes sense on paper but doesn’t feel built to last. He hasn’t taken a regular-season snap in more than 670 days, and his return has been defined as much by injuries as by expectations.
In 2024, Watson ruptured his right Achilles in Week 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals, a devastating blow for a team that had spent big to fix its quarterback problem. That injury didn’t just end his season - it made the five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract he signed with Cleveland look like a franchise-defining mistake.
Then came another hit: Watson re-ruptured his Achilles during rehabilitation before the 2025 season. That left the Browns without a quarterback for a second straight year, even while they were still on the hook for his massive deal. Cleveland responded quickly, taking Shedeur Sanders with the No. 144 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
That move gave the Browns a real fallback option, and eventually it gave them a jolt. With Watson sidelined, Sanders got his chance in Week 11 against the Baltimore Ravens.
One week later, he made his first career start against the Las Vegas Raiders. He finished the season 3-4 as a starter and got better down the stretch, picking up wins over the Steelers and Bengals to close things out.
Still, that surge wasn’t enough to win the opening job. Todd Monken’s arrival as Cleveland’s new head coach seemed to reset the pecking order, and even a string of strong preseason outings from Sanders didn’t change it. The Browns appear to have made their decision a while ago.
There’s also the money. Cleveland has too much tied up in Watson to ignore the contract and simply move on.
Since 2022, he has played only 19 games for the Browns - just 27.9% of their 68 games in that span. The organization clearly wants to see what it can get back from that investment, even if the return is limited to a few games.
That said, Sanders has made his case. Through two preseason games, he has been the more efficient passer, posting a 68.2% completion rate compared with Watson’s 59.3%.
Sanders has also thrown more touchdown passes, with one to Watson’s none. Both quarterbacks have turned the ball over, but the younger player has looked sharper.
So why Watson? Cleveland may frame it as a pure football decision, but the financial reality is impossible to miss.
The Browns are trying to extract something, anything, from the deal they made. If Watson struggles, the door is already open for Sanders.
And that’s why this feels temporary. By the time the Steelers see the Browns in Week 4, the experiment could already be winding down.
Watson once carried the label of a highly talented quarterback. That was before two aggravated Achilles injuries and more than 600 days without Sunday action changed the picture.
Cleveland has chosen to start him, but Shedeur Sanders is waiting right behind him.
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The most sobering part for Steelers fans is not just the anxiety score, but the idea behind it: even if Rodgers plays well, the ceiling may still be too low to satisfy a team that has spent the offseason trying to convince itself this can be a real contender. Gagnons ranking also put the Bengals and Ravens in even more uneasy territory, but for Pittsburgh the message feels especially pointed because the window with Rodgers may not last long, and the margin for error may be even smaller than it looks. [Read more 🡒]
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What the restructure really does is open a little more room for the Steelers to maneuver next offseason, whether that means retaining their own players or going after help elsewhere. The cap picture is still not clean beyond that, since projections have Pittsburgh over the limit in 2027, but this is a meaningful step toward giving the front office more options when the roster starts taking shape for the next wave of decisions. [Read more 🡒]
New Seahawks Owner Just Made An Eye-Catching Steelers Confession
The Seahawks new ownership situation got a little more interesting when Vinod Khosla made a football confession that will land well in Pittsburgh. At his introductory press conference, Khosla said he has been a Steelers fan since arriving in the United States in 1976, a detail that instantly tied him to one of the NFLs most recognizable brands and its storied 1970s run.
Khosla also said he still watches Steelers games even now that he owns Seattle, which is the sort of admission that will not go unnoticed by either fan base. For Steelers supporters, it is a reminder of how far the teams reach extends, and for the Seahawks it adds an unusual twist to the start of a new ownership era. [Read more 🡒]