‘Browns Never Had Any Intention to Start Shedeur Sanders’ — Former Heisman Winner Argues Cleveland Set Star QB Up To Fail

The Cleveland Browns may be nearing a decision on their starting quarterback for the 2026 season. It’s either going to be Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders, but was this a rigged competition?

First-year head coach Todd Monken was intent on giving both QBs a clean slate, but is that really what has gone down in Cleveland?

Signs suggest Watson, the more experienced of the two, is expected to get the starting nod in Week 1. He started the team’s preseason opener, whereas Sanders will get a chance to start the Browns’ second game on Saturday.

While Cleveland may very well be leaning toward announcing Watson as the starter, former NFL QB Robert Griffin III believes Sanders never really had a chance. Griffin claims the Browns wanted to make Watson the starter all along, and his albatross of a contract is a big reason why.

“I’m convinced the Cleveland Browns never had any intention to start Shedeur Sanders,” Griffin III said. “Shedeur starting the second preseason game without the rest of the Browns starters makes zero sense. It’s impossible to get a comparable evaluation in a QB competition if Shedeur doesn’t get to play with all the starters.

“Shedeur doesn’t have a $230 million fully guaranteed contract.”

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Griffin III adds that “it’s a business,” but he still feels like the Browns could have avoided a “lot of unnecessary noise” by just declaring the three-time Pro Bowler as the starter from the very beginning.

“It’s a business,” Griffin said. “I get it. But the Browns could have saved the locker room and the fans from a lot of unnecessary noise from the media by just declaring they planned to start Deshaun Watson no matter what.”

Watson, of course, is entering the final season of his five-year, fully-guaranteed $230 million contract.

In a way, it makes sense to see if Monken can unlock the elite potential Watson once flashed in Houston. If it doesn’t work out, they can quickly pivot to Sanders, who will hopefully be even more prepared by then.

After all, Sanders will still be under contract through 2028, so the Browns have some time to evaluate the 24-year-old. Yet, unless Watson balls out, the Browns will surely want to give Sanders a fair evaluation period at some point before they get too deep into their 2027 NFL Draft prep.

This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.