Browns face growing heat over Deshaun Watson call as Shedeur Sanders uproar explodes

Deshaun Watson opens the season atop Cleveland's depth chart, but the runway under him looks unusually thin. The Browns kept him as their Week 1 starter against the Jacksonville Jaguars and passed on handing the job to rookie Shedeur Sanders, a decision that has already drawn criticism.

Watson's track record in Cleveland gives them reason for caution. Across his time with the franchise since 2022, he has connected on 61.2% of his throws for 3,365 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.

Former receiver Chad Johnson laid out the math that could force a change. Speaking to OutKick, he pointed to a schedule that starts with Jacksonville, rolls into Tampa Bay, then returns home, and argued the Browns cannot afford to fall into an early hole.

"If you start off 0-2, they're making a move," Johnson said , adding the team would act "before the season gets too far away from them." He framed Watson's grip on the role as fragile from the start. "Deshaun Watson was always going to be the starting quarterback no matter what," Johnson said, before warning that "his leash is going to be very short."

Head coach Todd Monken defended the choice on his own terms. He credited Watson's "whole body of work over the course of offseason" and pushed back on the idea that the job would be a "week-to-week" question.

Skip Bayless Blasts Browns Over Shedeur Sanders' Blocked Path

Sanders' situation has become the season's loudest sideshow, and Skip Bayless is leading the outrage. The commentator called what the Browns are doing to Sanders one of the worst setups he has watched, saying on X on August 31, 2026, that it is "THE most outrageously wrong situation I've ever seen."

The frustration builds on a summer that never broke Sanders' way. He came into 2026 fighting for the starting job before the team settled on Watson, leaving him in a backup role after a rookie year that, by most accounts, showed real growth.

A later decision stung more. Cleveland had Sanders split scout-team snaps with rookie Taylen Green rather than funnel every extra developmental rep his way.

An opening looked possible when Dillon Gabriel landed on injured reserve with a back injury. It did not translate into a bigger share of work behind Watson for Sanders .

The pushback has not come only from Bayless. Robert Griffin III reported that Watson was not Monken's pick, and that many inside the building saw Sanders as the better fit on and off the field, with the team wanting Watson to "play for his pay." For now, Sanders waits.