Barring a surprising development, first-year Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken will not declare a winner of the team’s competition for the starting quarterback job involving 2025 rookie Shedeur Sanders and veteran Deshaun Watson before Cleveland’s preseason opener at the Chicago Bears takes place on Aug. 15.
During the latest edition of the “Orange and Brown Talk” podcast, Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer shared why Sanders may have a unique advantage once he and Watson begin battling in front of fans during summer practice sessions.
Browns fans want Shedeur Sanders to win the job over Deshaun Watson?
“A lot of fans love Shedeur,” Cabot said. “So the boos for Deshaun and the cheers for Shedeur, I think, are going to be a huge issue if [Watson] wins this job.”
Watson has been an unpopular figure among pockets of Cleveland fans for multiple reasons, so much so that people in attendance heard cheering from some paying customers after the signal-caller suffered a torn Achilles tendon during a home game in October 2024. Recently, Watson was asked about not having “all the support that [he] would hope to have from” Browns fans.
“At the end of the day,” Watson said, “I can’t control what people support. I think that’s their own opinions. I think that all I can do is just put out the best person I am, showcase who I am as a person, as a player, as a teammate, and what I represent as an individual. So outside of that, I can’t focus on what the outside is saying or what they — I have no control over that other than just putting out the best product that I can put out as a person and as a player.”
History shows the backup QB is sometimes more popular than the starter among Browns fans
Cabot noted that some people chanted for Sanders when Watson recently attended a Cleveland Cavaliers playoff game. Additionally, she mentioned how it’s believed one reason the Browns didn’t re-sign fan-favorite Joe Flacco in early 2024 is that people within the organization were allegedly concerned that “fans certainly would have started chanting for Flacco in games where [Watson] struggled, especially early in the season.”
“That’s exactly what this is going to be like if Deshaun is a starter and Shedeur is standing over there on the sidelines,” Cabot explained. “And for anybody to think that this isn’t an issue, well, I just think that’s absolutely, utterly ridiculous.”
The Browns’ preseason opener will be a contest against the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 22. It sounds like those watching the game on television should expect to hear Cleveland fans in attendance make their opinions about the team’s quarterback battle heard loud and clear that Saturday afternoon.
