Cleveland Browns insider Zac Jackson did not mince words in his latest look at the Cleveland Browns quarterback room.
In The Athletic’s AFC North whiparound, the longtime Browns writer described the situation as a mess, then delivered the line that immediately stood out.
“Shedeur Sanders is next, and he’s going to get to start at some point this season,” Jackson wrote.
That prediction rests on more than speculation. Jackson pointed to a franchise pattern that has become almost annual. Cleveland has used at least three different starting quarterbacks in each of the last three seasons and has seen a backup take the field before November in seven of the last ten years.
Deshaun Watson will open the year as the starter after winning the training-camp competition, yet the organization’s recent history suggests the first name on the depth chart rarely remains the only name that matters.
Sanders already has recent starting experience. He finished last season as Cleveland’s quarterback for the final seven games after beginning the year as a backup who had not even taken first-team practice snaps.
This time, he arrives with a full offseason inside Todd Monken’s scheme and more work with the skill players who will surround him. Jackson’s view is that those extra months of preparation make the eventual promotion more likely, not less.
The rest of the room only reinforces the instability. Second-year quarterback Dillon Gabriel is on injured reserve with a back injury and will miss at least the first four weeks. Rookie Taylen Green is viewed as the longer-term developmental piece. Jackson went so far as to say there is a strong chance only Green remains on the roster by next summer. In other words, the Browns are carrying four quarterbacks into the season while treating three of them as potentially temporary.
Watson’s own situation adds another layer. He has played just 19 games over four seasons in Cleveland and has publicly acknowledged the difficulty of dealing with constant negativity.
Monken is betting that the veteran can still produce after nearly two years away, but Jackson noted that almost nobody outside the building shares that optimism. If early results disappoint, the organization will have both a ready-made successor in Sanders and a well-established habit of making the switch.
None of this guarantees a midseason change. Watson could play well enough to keep the job. Injuries or unexpected development could alter the picture.
Jackson’s statement simply reflects what the Browns have repeatedly shown: when the starting quarterback stumbles, the next man up gets his chance, and that next man is now Sanders.
For a franchise still searching for stability at the most important position, that reality may arrive sooner than the Week 1 depth chart suggests.
