With the team sitting at 2-7 and in last place in the AFC North, Cleveland Browns fans are getting restless at the franchise's refusal to play rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
After picking Sanders with the 144th overall pick in the 2025 draft, the Browns have seemingly kept him at arm's length. He started the offseason ranked fourth on Cleveland's depth chart but climbed as high as No. 2 after Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett were traded to the Cincinnati Bengals Las Vegas Raiders, respectively.
But with fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel playing some uninspiring football as the team's QB1 - Gabriel is 1-4 as a starter with 850 yards passing, six touchdowns, two interceptions, and an 80.4 passer rating - fans are puzzled with head coach Kevin Stefanski's seeming unwillingness to at least see what Sanders can do.
And now with reports surfacing that Deshaun Watson could be close to returning from a ruptured Achilles, SI.com's Albert Breer believes Browns fans may be waiting even longer to see Sanders play in a meaningful game.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Breer told 92.3 The Fan about the possibility of seeing Watson play before Sanders. "My guess is they'd like to see both of them. But I think we have to remember that Shedeur is a fifth-round pick. The investment the organization has in those two guys is on different planets.
"One guy is under contract for the next three years, after this year, at a very low number. The other guy you have under contract for one more year, and you're guaranteeing him $46 million. It's not even close to the same thing, regardless of how famous the fifth-round pick may be."
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After acquiring him from the Houston Texans back in 2022, Watson has been one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory.
After securing a $230 million fully guaranteed contract, the Clemson alum has gone 9-10 as the Browns' starter, throwing for 3,365 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions, and he's missed 41 games over the last three-and-a-half seasons.
While Sanders has remained confident he would thrive when he's given his opportunity to start, it's possible when that chance does come, it may not even be with the Browns.
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