Deshaun Watson will see his first live, on-field action since midway through the 2024 season on Saturday when the Browns play the Bears in their preseason opener.
As Browns owner Jimmy Haslam put it, the Watson trade has been “a big swing and a miss” for the franchise. Watson hasn’t played good football since 2020, when he led the league with 4,823 passing yards. But even then, Houston went 4-12.
Then came the allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, resulting in a suspension and more than 20 settled civil lawsuits. And finally came Watson’s two Achilles tears since 2024.
So it stands to reason that even as the Browns are giving Watson every opportunity to win a quarterback competition with Shedeur Sanders, Watson is unlikely to ever revert back to the player he was earlier in his career with Houston.
Watson himself acknowledged this in his own way on Wednesday.
“I’m different, man,” Watson said in his press conference. “I think, ever since I’ve been here, early on bringing up Houston was cool, but I’m 30 now and I’ve had some injuries and things like that, so my game has definitely changed. But the mentality in how I play, and how I approach it, doesn’t change.
“So, I think the biggest thing is just going out there, playing free, and letting my instincts take over. That’s the biggest thing. Coach O’Brien always told me to trust my instincts, so I think that’s the biggest thing, just go out there, play free, and let the game come to you.”
However, head coach Todd Monken told reporters on Wednesday that he doesn’t see why Watson can’t regain his old form.
“Well, first of all, I would never put limitations on a player. I’d hate that he would do that,” Monken said. “Why can’t he be? Why can’t he play like that? I don’t know, I haven’t seen it yet. I’m not going to say he can’t until I see it.
“I’ve seen a lot of really good things over the course of the four or five months I’ve been here. I’m not going to put that on him. If he thinks he can’t play like that, that’s on him. I think he’s done a lot of really good things athletically, making plays that we’re going to get a chance to see, because we’re not live. We’ll see if that comes to play when we get out there and go.”
Watson is slated to play the first half of Saturday’s game against the Bears. We’ll all see what his performance looks like in a few days.
Browns Clips
Deshaun Watson is the first man up for the Browns.
The team announced on Wednesday afternoon that Watson will start at quarterback against the Bears in the team’s preseason opener on Saturday. Head coach Todd Monken declined to make an announcement regarding Watson and Shedeur Sanders earlier in the day, but said that the starter will play the first half of the game and that the other quarterback would also play. Sanders is now set to start the team’s second preseason game against the Bills on August 22 as well.
It will be Watson’s first game action of any kind since he tore his Achilles during the 2024 season.
“I’m super excited,” Watson said on Wednesday, via the team’s website. “All the hard work that I put in with the training staff, with my team, my personal team, to get to this stage has been tremendous for me. So, I’m super excited for those opportunities and can’t wait for it.”
Watson and Sanders have split reps with the first team throughout training camp and Monken has not set a date for the competition to come to an end. Given the current plan for preseason work, it will be some time before the Browns know who will be getting the start in Week 1.
While Browns head coach Todd Monken again declined to announce who will start at quarterback in the club’s first preseason game, he did give reporters an idea of planned playing time during his Wednesday press conference.
Monken said he would inform the two quarterbacks, Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson, of his plan after Wednesday’s practice. But both will play in the game.
“One’s going to start this week, the other’s going to start next week,” Monken said. “I would like to see the quarterback play a half and get a two-minute [drive]. We’re going to do everything we can to try to get a two-minute, simulate that before the half. And we’re going to try to do the exact same thing the next week.”
The quarterback who doesn’t start, Monken added, will play the third quarter.
Monken said he has his reasons for proceeding the way he will with whoever starts at QB this week and on Aug. 22 against the Bills.
“Somewhere along the line, you’ve got to pick somebody,” Monken said. “It’s still a competition. We’re still excited to watch guys practice today, let alone on Saturday, and then next week against Buffalo. We’ll get a chance to see them both. And every week we’ll assess it.”
While Monken plans to play the starting offensive line for much of the first half with the first quarterback, he said the first OL will not be in with the starting quarterback the entire time.
“We’ll see where [the Bears are] at in terms of who they’re playing up front,” Monken said. “I think it’d be unfair to our quarterbacks — either game — to not have our guys up front to give our quarterback a chance to function. So that will be predicated on what the Bears do a little bit. Now, there’s going to come a point where if they played their starters for three quarters, we’re not going to do that. But ultimately, we want to give our quarterbacks a chance to function — no matter who they put out there, just collectively as a group, both weeks.”
With Monken informing the quarterbacks of his decision after practice, word of the plan seems likely to emerge later on Wednesday.
In recent days, there’s been chatter that Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders has been dealing with a blister on his hand that’s affected his throwing.
In his Wednesday press conference, Sanders confirmed that he’s had a blister on his hand this offseason. But he also noted that it isn’t affecting him now.
“No that happened this past offseason getting back into it, just from throwing a lot,” Sanders said. “Honestly, that’s where it came from. And it’s all headed up now. But that was a thing, I would say, at the start of training camp and everything that we just had to work through and be able to figure out.”
Sanders is expected to get plenty of playing time in Cleveland’s first preseason game on Saturday against Chicago as he competes with Deshaun Watson to be the Browns’ starting quarterback to open 2026.
In eight games with seven starts as a rookie, Sanders completed 56.6 percent of his passes for 1,400 yards with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
The Browns made a pair of roster moves on Tuesday afternoon.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they claimed tight end Dae’Quan Wright off of waivers from the Eagles. They put defensive back Damarri Mathis on injured reserve in a corresponding move.
Wright signed with the Eagles after going undrafted out of Ole Miss. He had 39 catches for 635 yards and five touchdowns during his final college season.
Mathis was carted off with an injury at Browns practice on Tuesday. He tore his ACL at a Panthers practice ahead of last season, so it may be back-to-back lost years for Mathis.
Multiple reporters on the Browns beat noted how the end of Monday’s practice was sloppy, with head coach Todd Monken becoming animated over the offense’s pre-snap penalties and inability to execute the operation.
On multiple occasions since getting the Cleveland job this offseason, Monken has explained how he hates “shitty football” — instances where the team is not functioning with operational issues that are controllable. That was at the heart of his reaction on Monday, which he explained in his Tuesday press conference, saying he got “emotionally hijacked.”
“I said it to the offense. I said it to those guys. I told them that in that moment, what I should’ve done, and what I didn’t do,” Monken said. “And as I’ve said to them and us, we’re human. I got fired up. I was pissed. That was awful. That was shitty football. And that is going to get me fired up. And I have to own some of that. Obviously, we haven’t coached it well enough. There were other aspects about the two-minute that got me fired up that obviously [were] a reflection of coaching.
“Those things — we’re getting plenty of effort. Guys are fighting their rear end off. We’re tough. So, we’ve got that, OK. How are we going to do the little things well? And that’s coaching. That’s me, and that’s our staff.”
Monken, however, also said that he really liked the rest of Monday’s session, particularly considering it came after an off day.
“That part of it, really, I was jacked about the way our team practiced,” Monken said. “Coming off of six days, one day off, and how they attacked it yesterday. I mean, you couldn’t have asked for better energy, attitude, body language — it just wasn’t good at the end for one side. But up until that point, I thought our guys practiced their rear ends off, and I thought it was outstanding for having a day off the day before.”
Monken and the Browns will have their first preseason game against the Bears in Chicago on Saturday afternoon.
Browns rookie offensive tackle Spencer Fano got into a scuffle with defensive end Jared Verse at training camp on Saturday and it earned him something much better than a reprimand from head coach Todd Monken.
Monken told reporters at a Monday press conference that Fano will now be the left tackle for the starting offense. Fano was a first-round pick, so he was always ticketed for the first team but Monken cited the way he handled himself against Verse as the final push he needed to move ahead of Dawand Jones.
“We were already leaning that way, and Saturday solidified it. . . . You want to see the competition part; you want to see a guy not back down,” Monken said, via a transcript from the team. “If they don’t stand up for themselves, then you’re really concerned.”
Fano isn’t the only rookie who got good news on Monday. Monken said that wide receiver Denzel Boston has also been bumped up to the first team.
“He’s made a bunch of plays. I’ve seen it, you’ve seen it,” Monken said. “He’s made a bunch of plays. We want to move Jerry [Jeudy] around; I think Jerry is at his best when he’s on the move. He’s elite, he can separate. And I think Denzel has shown that when he’s in the boundary, and you [see] contested catches, a lot of our three-by-one stuff may go to there.”
The Browns also drafted wide receiver KC Concepcion in the first round and all three rookies should wind up playing significant roles as the Browns try to put together a winner in Monken’s first season.
The Browns veered off script for Saturday’s practice when they gave Deshaun Watson the first-team reps at practice after saying it would be Shedeur Sanders’s day to work with that unit, but head coach Todd Monken said at a Monday press conference that nothing has changed in terms of the competition being open.
Monken said that Sanders worked with the first team during a walkthrough ahead of Saturday’s practice and that they went with Watson to balance out the total number of reps with the first team. Monken said Sanders is slated to get that role in Monday’s practice “unless I change my mind on the way out” and that the job remains up for grabs.
“As long as we’re still sharing reps, it’s a competition,” Monken said.
The Browns play their first preseason game on Saturday and Monken said that they haven’t picked a starter for that game. He said the current plan is for both players to start one of the first two games this month.
“After those two games, we’ll be closer to at least having a better idea,” Monken said.
The Browns also have a joint practice with the Bills next week and that will provide more competitive reps for the Browns to use to finally select their quarterback for Week 1.
The Browns have been rotating quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders with the first team from day to day at training camp, so any deviation from that schedule is sure to grab attention.
Such a deviation came on Saturday. Head coach Todd Monken said before practice that it would be Sanders working with the first team, but multiple reporters shared that Watson received all of the work with the first team.
Monken did not speak to the media after practice. A team spokesman said, via multiple reporters, that Monken changed the plans because he wanted to see Watson with certain personnel groups.
Earlier this week, Monken clarified a report that both quarterbacks will get a start in the preseason by saying that “if it’s still a competition at that time, why wouldn’t you start one and start the other” without targeting any date for the competition to end. The Browns play their first preseason game next Saturday, so the identity of the first guy up as the starter should come early in the week.
The Browns plucked a defensive lineman off of the waiver wire on Friday.
They announced the addition of defensive tackle Patrick Jenkins to the roster. They had opened up a roster spot earlier in the day by placing offensive lineman Kendrick Green on injured reserve.
Jenkins was let go by the Jets on Thursday and he was in training camp with the Cardinals last summer. He also spent some time on the Falcons’ practice squad late in the regular season.
Jenkins played for Columbus in the UFL this spring. He had 22 tackles, six tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in 10 games.
