One of the teams projected to finish with one of the worst records in the NFL this season was at the center of the most drama during the preseason. Now, as the Cleveland Browns look to make the most of an underwhelming quarterback situation, what’s next for them ahead of the regular season?
We asked several people around the league what they thought of first-year head coach Todd Monken‘s decision to name Deshaun Watson the starting quarterback and what might be next for Shedeur Sanders as he heads to the bench. One scout floated the possibility that one of the quarterbacks could be on the trade block, while an exec diagnosed what’s wrong in Cleveland.
Here’s what we learned from our conversations with people around the league.
Eric D. Williams: While Watson and Sanders have battled it out for the starting job, the odd man out has been the quarterback selected two rounds earlier than Sanders last season: Dillon Gabriel.
The Oregon product finished 1-5 as a starter during his rookie season and has played sparingly during the preseason this year. However, Gabriel got the start in Cleveland’s preseason finale and shined. He completed 12 of 15 passes for 186 yards and three touchdowns in the victory over the New England Patriots.
A longtime NFL scout I spoke to said Gabriel’s outing could be an audition for the rest of the league. The Browns traded Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett last year and could be looking to get some draft compensation in return for Gabriel.
Or they could be looking at Gabriel as a potential candidate for the No. 2 job and looking to flip Sanders for future draft picks.
“It will be interesting how it unfolds,” the NFL talent evaluator told me. “From the outside, you’d want to go with experience and leadership at QB over everything else at this point. But I think Gabriel has a chance to be a good backup and liked him coming out.
“All eyes are on Sanders, but he’s gotta show he can be a solid, strong leader and settle down as well to grind, learn and develop. He’s going to find out that as a player, you can only get so many opportunities to do that, and you better take advantage of every single one of them.”
The scout went on to say he believed Cleveland started Gabriel in the final preseason game to show him off for a potential trade, but there’s a real chance his start was an audition for the No. 2 job when he’s eventually healthy and Sanders is the one on the trade block. Gabriel was named to the 53-man roster on Sunday, although he’ll begin the year on injured reserve with the designation to return later in the season.
Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders are both currently on the Browns’ roster, but will they need to trade one of them at some point? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)
Another scout I spoke with noted that chance to quiet the quarterback room by moving on from either Watson or Sanders, who have commanded a lot of attention because of things off the field.
“Both are PR nightmares by the way they handle the media and the fans by what they say,” the scout told me when asked about the Watson-Sanders dynamic. “Humility is a tough lesson to learn at this stage of their lives.”
Ralph Vacchiano: Going with a veteran quarterback, especially with a young team and a road-heavy early schedule, probably makes some sense. It may even give Todd Monken and the Cleveland Browns the best chance at short-term success.
But it definitely isn’t in the long-term interest of the Browns.
“It’s a Band-Aid on a pretty deep cut,” one NFL executive told me. “Maybe it helps a little, but it does nothing for their bigger problem. They need a long-term solution at quarterback, and obviously Deshaun Watson is not it.”
Even if Watson played well this season, there is no way the Browns would re-sign him after finally getting out from under the disastrous, five-year, $230 million, fully guaranteed contract they gave him. Watson is reviled by the Browns fanbase as it is, both for his awful, injury-prone career in Cleveland and for all the sexual assault allegations levied against him before they traded for him.
“He has no future there,” the executive told me. “I get what Monken is doing. He wants a few wins and he wants to help stabilize things for his young team. But Watson isn’t the guy to do that. If they wanted to do that they could’ve gone and signed Joe Flacco or someone like that.
“What they need to do is find out if Shedeur Sanders is an NFL quarterback. And they’re going to do that at some point during this season. So why not do it from the start?”
Vacchiano: Deshaun Watson had one decent performance in the preseason, followed by a terrible one. And while it’s still a very small sample size for a player who hasn’t played in two years, one NFL scout told me he saw more than enough to question the Cleveland Browns’ choice.
“He looked shaky. That’s the best way I could describe it,” the scout told me. “What I loved about him back in the day was how strong and confident he always looked. He stood really tall in the pocket and he looked very much in control when he threw on the run.
“That’s all gone now. It makes sense. He’s played like [19] games in the last five years. And it shows. He looks rusty, like he’s learning how to play all over again and just isn’t sure about anything at all.”
Deshaun Watson completed 16 of 27 passes for 162 yards and an interception over two preseason appearances. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Williams: Matt Hasselbeck knows what it takes to go from being a backup quarterback to a successful starter. Hasselbeck, a sixth-round pick by the Green Bay Packers in the 1998 draft, began his career backing up Brett Favre in Green Bay traded and even backed up Trent Dilfer with the Seattle Seahawks before taking over as the starting quarterback for 10 seasons in the Pacific Northwest, which included a Super Bowl appearance.
And like Sanders, Hasselbeck’s father, Don Hasselbeck, was an accomplished player in the NFL, so he understands the pressures the Colorado product is attempting to navigate in the early portion of his NFL career.
“He can learn from the mistake Deshaun Watson made this week,” Hasselbeck told me. “Watson is obviously still deeply hurt from when Browns’ fans cheered when he got hurt, and he let his emotions get the best of him in the postgame presser because he got booed this preseason. Obviously, he played poorly, but I think he got booed in part because there’s some excitement about Shedeur. But he handled the press conference completely the wrong way, and he ended up apologizing for it.
“So much about being with a veteran quarterback is you can learn what to do, but you can learn from their mistakes — whether that happens in front of you or you can also learn from stories they tell you about when they were younger. These are all lessons as a young quarterback where you can learn from the guy in the room, without having to make the mistakes yourself.”
Matt Hasselbeck (right) backed up Brett Favre to start his career. He’s now offering advice to Shedeur Sanders on how to handle his role. (Photo by James Biever/Getty Images)
As far as his play on the field, Hasselbeck believes Sanders has improved since his rookie season, successfully handling the transition in offenses from Kevin Stefanski his rookie year to Todd Monken this season. However, like most young quarterbacks, Hasselbeck believes Sanders needs more time and more reps to get better command of the intricacies of the offense.
For Hasselbeck, that means Sanders sitting and watching Watson play during the first half of the season, which should benefit his growth once he gets an opportunity to play this season.
“It’s a really tough situation,” Hasselbeck told me. “Nobody has played at a level that screams starting quarterback. But the reality is you’ve got to choose one of the guys in the room. I’m not at all surprised they picked Deshaun Watson to start the season. It’s pretty clear why they did it. I know Sanders outplayed Watson in the last preseason game, but Todd Monken has said consistently it’s going to be the full body of work. And I think their minds were made up before that last preseason game started.”
Will Shedeur Sanders eventually supplant Deshaun Watson as the Browns’ starting quarterback? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
That said, Hasselbeck believes Sanders’ best opportunity to succeed in the NFL is with the Browns.
“Shedeur’s best chance for a good future is in Cleveland,” he told me. “The fanbase is really excited about him. The continuity of just being in the building, even though there’s changes around him offensively and defensively, is probably the best thing. I think he’s got a future there. He’s played pretty well. Even in the last preseason game he played, there’s some good stuff there. You can see the playmaking ability. There’s upside, but like a lot of young players he’s got to eliminate critical errors that cost you game. But when you’re turning the keys to the offense over to someone, you must trust them wholeheartedly in everything.
“Everything matters. I think reckless driving matters. Having to apologize to reporters matters. Those types of things to me are just as important than all the other stuff. Do I think Shedeur Sanders will be the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns by the end of the season? Yes, I absolutely do. From my vantage point far away, it seems like he’s really improved in everything. I feel like he’s improved on the field and is maturing off the field. Like if this is a stock, I’m buying the stock. But I don’t think it’s at its peak yet. So, I’m holding onto the stock as long as possible.”