Shedeur Sanders' half-effort OTA reps give Deshaun Watson a real shot at Browns QB1, Florio warns

Jul 18, 2026 - 14:30

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Shedeur Sanders' half-effort OTA reps give Deshaun Watson a real shot at Browns QB1, Florio warns originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Cleveland's quarterback competition looked like it was trending toward Shedeur Sanders before NFL insider Mike Florio pumped the brakes. The Pro Football Talk analyst flagged a single OTA practice clip as evidence that the Browns' rookie signal-caller is not fully committing to the process, and he argued that kind of approach hands the advantage directly to Deshaun Watson.

Florio zeroed in on a fake-pitch drill where he said Watson executed the sequence cleanly and delivered a sharp throw, while Sanders appeared to coast through the same rep. That contrast, trivial as it sounds in isolation, matters more in a two-man competition where every observable detail feeds the coaching staff's decision.

Todd Monken's Browns have Sanders, Watson, and Dillon Gabriel fighting for QB1 reps ahead of training camp, but the real race is between the first two. Sanders went 10 interceptions in his first eight career games, a number that already had the Browns' staff watching his pocket judgment closely.

If the rookie is not treating spring drills as opportunities to sharpen that very issue, Watson does not need to be dominant to win the job. He just needs to look like the more serious competitor. Florio framed it as a direct warning Monken might have to deliver:

"And I said to Shedeur, 'You can't win the job if this is how you're going to approach these drills. You've got to put everything into it, or Watson is the guy who's going to earn the job. And by the time that we go play, the decision will have been made.'"

Tom Pelissero Sees a Genuine QB Battle in Cleveland, But Watson's $230M Contract Complicates the Picture

NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero offered a more balanced read of the Cleveland situation during a recent appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," and his framing adds a layer that Florio's film critique does not fully cover.

Pelissero pointed out that Watson is finishing the fifth and final year of his five-year, $230 million contract while having appeared in just 19 games across the past five seasons combined, a record that makes any projection about him unreliable at best.

His career in Cleveland has been marked by an 11-game suspension in 2022 over sexual harassment allegations, then a rotator cuff injury in 2023 that ended his season early, then a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2024, and then a second Achilles rupture on the same leg in 2025 that cost him the entire year.

None of that makes Pelissero's picture of the race rosier for Watson. But he did note the Browns' staff came away from OTAs and minicamp believing both men are capable of starting.

"From what I've been told, there really was growth through the spring. He did improve," Pelissero said about Sanders. "Is that enough to be able to catch Deshaun Watson? ... they came away thinking they got two guys they can go out there and play with."

Monken, for his part, has publicly credited Sanders with better pocket decision-making. But Florio's read is that Sanders is a gamer who shows up in games and checks out in practice, and that split works only if the coaching staff decides to look past the drills. Monken, Florio suggested, has not.