On Sunday, Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry offered no hints about who’s leading the team’s starting quarterback battle.
Second-year passer Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson are competing for the QB1 spot in Cleveland. Berry complimented both during an interview with NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Marc Ross.
Andrew Berry praises Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson
“Both of those guys, and really that entire room, deserve a lot of credit for putting together a good offseason program,” Berry said of Sanders and Watson. “The reality of it is, we’re only three days into training camp. So, we’ve got a long way to go before decisions are made.”
Berry may not be ready to name the starter yet, but Sanders appears to be taking the early lead in the position battle with Watson.
During Saturday’s practice, Sanders took all the reps with the first-team offense in seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 drills, completing 13-of-22 passes for four touchdowns and one interception. Watson, meanwhile, completed 12-of-19 passes for three TDs and three interceptions.
Training camp stats, however, don’t matter; games do. And it is the Browns’ preseason contests, which begin against the Chicago Bears on Aug. 15 (NFL Network, 1 p.m. ET), that will likely play a bigger factor in determining the winner.
Cleveland plans to play its starters during the preseason. That will give the coaching staff a better opportunity to assess how each QB runs the offense and if one has more chemistry with teammates. The GM suggested the team may use the entire preseason to pick a QB.
“We’ll have a starter by Week 1 [against the Jacksonville Jaguars] … it’ll be performance-based, and we’re really looking forward to a really good competition over the next several weeks,” Berry said.
Berry added they want to look at the “whole body of work” before making a decision. That said, if Sanders or Watson gains a huge lead over the next week or two, the process shouldn’t need to be that extensive.
It’s good for Cleveland that Berry wants to do his homework before the team solidifies its plans at the most important position, but he shouldn’t waste more time if the answer is becoming clearer with every practice.
