Deshaun Watson’s Potential Return Headlines Browns QB Drama

It’s typically a problem when an NFL team can’t instantly identify their starting quarterback and it is really troublesome if three are in the mix.

Well, hello Cleveland Browns, it appears you still have a quarterback problem even after drafting two in 2025 and another in last week’s draft.

At this point, the Browns might consider inviting the starting quarterbacks from Bowling Green, Toledo, Akron, Miami (Ohio), Ohio University and Youngstown State to put their names in the hat.

Cleveland selected Dillon Gabriel in the third round of the 2025 draft and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth. This year, they chose Taylen Green in the sixth round.

Now ponder this – none of those three guys will be the Browns’ quarterback in Week 1 of this season.

Bet you haven’t forgotten this guy: Deshaun Watson.

Everybody has already written him off as one of the biggest busts in NFL history. But with one season to go on his contract and his Achilles tendon now healed, opportunity suddenly knocks.

Cleveland has a new head coach in Todd Monken and it appears he will give Watson every opportunity to earn the job.

Before being suspended and ridiculed for more than two dozen instances of sexual misconduct, Watson was a pretty good quarterback.

He tossed a career-high 33 touchdown passes against a career-low seven interceptions in 2020 while also leading the NFL with 4,823 passing yards. At that point, nobody anywhere was forecasting his career would fall off a cliff.

A contract dispute with the Houston Texans and all the sordid claims by massage therapists delivered repeated blows at Watson’s reputation. He was traded to the Browns in 2022 and received a five-year contract for a then-record $230 million in guaranteed money.

It seemed surreal that anybody would give Watson a contract like that.

And, of course, it was a complete disaster. Watson played in just 19 games over the next four seasons. He’s thrown for 19 touchdowns against 12 interceptions for that wheelbarrow full of money.

He received a bad blow by tearing the Achilles in October 2024 but Cleveland’s record was just 1-6 with him as a starter that season. It seemed the unfortunate injury would be the final time he was seen in a game for the Browns.

But Monken doesn’t seem to care too much about what happened in the past. He remembers that Watson was a three-time Pro Bowler and a completion machine earlier in his career.

He’s now watching Watson on the practice field running his offense and wondering if the player who turns 31 in September can turn things around.

After Monken was hired, he expressed that he had an open mind about Watson.

“Anytime that you have a player that at one time has exhibited the skill set at an elite level,” Monken told reporters. “I think you’re always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we might be able to get that out of him again, and I think that’s how you should look at every player.”

Cleveland started last season under Kevin Stefanski with veteran Joe Flacco as quarterback. After four games, Gabriel took over and started the next six before sustaining a concussion. He threw seven touchdown passes against two interceptions in 185 attempts.

Sanders started the last seven games and wasn’t always brisk with his decision-making and had seven TD passes against 10 picks in 212 throws. Sanders made the Pro Bowl when several others withdrew or declined invitations.

Green is a raw talent who shouldn’t see the field in 2026. He’s an exceptional athlete who needs time to develop. He played college football at Boise State and Arkansas.

Monken said he wants to have a quarterback order established by the end of the team’s June 9-11 minicamp. That essentially means tabbing a guy who will be QB1 on the first day of July’s training camp.

You see a first-year coach hired to pump up a team’s offensive attack. Sure seems like Watson will be the starting point.

Then, in the Cleveland tradition, you work down the QB depth chart if Watson fails again or gets hurt.