Browns Clips
In competition with Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson started the first preseason game for the Browns on Saturday against the Bears and played the entire first half.
The results were middling.
Watson ended his two-quarter outing 11-of-15 passing for 126 yards. The Browns scored a field goal and a touchdown with him in. But Watson was not particularly impressive, at times looking uncomfortable in the pocket and firing inaccurate passes. He was also strip-sacked on a fourth-and-2 from the Chicago 40 as the Browns were trying to extend a drive early in the second quarter.
Most of Watson’s yardage came on a 43-yard screen pass to Dylan Sampson late in the first period. He attempted just one pass over 10 yards in the air.
Head coach Todd Monken mentioned to reporters during the week that the Browns would do everything they could to get a two-minute drill, and they had that opportunity when rookie corner Michael Coats picked off Tyson Bagent late in the second quarter. But Cleveland did nothing with it, as Watson threw a pair of incompletions on second and third down on the ensuing possession.
Rookie first-round receiver KC Concepcion showed explosiveness and versatility, returning a punt 28 yards, catching three passes for 27 yards, and taking in an end around for a 14-yard touchdown. Fellow rookie Denzel Boston also moved the chains with a 15-yard catch on the left side.
Sanders is set to play the third quarter for Cleveland. He’s also set to start next week’s preseason contest against Buffalo.
When two quarterbacks are competing for one job, it’s often perceived that the player getting the first crack as to any of the various checkpoints has the edge.
And so it’s fair to wonder whether the decision to give Deshaun Watson the start in Cleveland’s preseason opener, with Shedeur Sanders getting the start in Week 2, means that Watson has the edge.
There’s another way to analyze this development. The preseason opener is a road game. For Week 2, the Browns are at home.
Watson remains unpopular among many, if not most, Browns fans. If his preseason start had happened before a pro-Browns crowd, there may have been plenty of anti-Watson voices making themselves heard.
By getting his preseason start in Chicago, Watson will be able to operate without any such noise.
But it also raises the stakes for Deshaun. If he’s not crisp and clean and clearly better than Shedeur, Sanders will walk out of the tunnel to a loud ovation for the Week 2 game against the Bills, with maximum support from the fans. And it could fuel Shedeur’s effort to finally seize the job.
The overriding problem for the Browns is that neither guy has run away with the competition. On Saturday, Watson gets a chance to make his case without having Browns fans on his case. If he doesn’t, the stage will be set for Shedeur to deliver the kind of performance that will make him the Week 1 starter.
Of course, winning the starting job to start the season (whether it’s Watson or Sanders) may also include securing the reality of being the first guy to be benched, if the 2026 season doesn’t get off to a good start.
And with the first four games against the Jaguars, Buccaneers, Panthers, and Steelers, the mini-bye after the Thursday night home game against Pittsburgh could open the window for a change from QB1 to QB2.
The last time Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders addressed the media in Cleveland, he got frustrated with a question and short with the reporter who asked it. This week, he apologized for that.
Sanders came out to talk to the media and started by saying he meant no disrespect with the way he addressed them last time.
“How’s everybody doing? Good, good. First, I want to apologize for how things was last time I came up here before y’ll,” Sanders said before taking any questions. “I dislike when it’s a lot of separation. When something gets between the team and people get painted a certain way and all this different type of stuff. So that’s where I get frustrated, and I shut down. Because it just doesn’t help us win.”
Sanders had previously become upset with a question about his quarterback competition with Deshaun Watson, declining to answer it by saying, “Next question. I answered this question 1,000 times.” At his more recent press conference, he explained that he was trying not to say anything that might suggest the quarterback competition is dividing the team.
“I feel drained when I express myself to people and places and cameras when it’s not received and taken the right way, or like we’re trying to divide the team or anything like that. That’s where I was trying to preserve my energy from going in depth with a lot of things,” Sanders said.
It’s to Sanders’ credit that he wants to do better in his interactions with the media. And it’s the kind of thing that will easily be forgotten, especially if Sanders plays and plays well.
Is there a reunion in order?
After electing to un-retire, edge rusher Za’Darius Smith had a workout with the Browns on Thursday, according to the league’s transaction wire.
Smith, who turns 34 in early September, previously played for the Browns in 2023 and 2024. He registered 5.5 sacks for the club to help Cleveland make the postseason in his first year with the team and had 5.0 sacks in nine games in 2024 before being traded to Detroit.
Smith appeared in five games for the Eagles last year before electing to retire in mid-October.
A fourth-round pick back in 2015, Smith has appeared in 145 games with 98 starts for the Ravens, Packers, Vikings, Browns, Lions, and Eagles.
The Browns have been looking for veteran edge rusher help, as they recently worked out Jadeveon Clowney before he elected to sign with the Texans.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams will not play in the team’s preseason opener against the Browns on Saturday, and it sounds like head coach Ben Johnson is leaning toward not playing the signal-caller at all in August.
Johnson told reporters in his Thursday press conference that “a number of starters” will not play against Cleveland, including Williams. Johnson said backup Tyson Bagent will start at quarterback and play about a half.
“There will be a handful of guys that aren’t participating in this matchup,” Johnson said. “And yet, I think we’re going to get some good evals of the guys who are out there and make sure that we have enough to go win this game. So, really excited about that.”
As for the rest of the preseason, Johnson noted that decisions on preseason playing time have not been fully made. But Williams seeing game time won’t be a requirement, particularly as the club will practice with the Bengals next week.
“[D]o I need to see Caleb Williams in the preseason? No, I don’t,” Johnson said. “I see him every single day in practice, and I know what we’re going to get come the season. And yet, at the same time, there’s a workload and a number of reps that we want to hit as a team. And so, we’ll make sure we even that out — whether that’s game reps or not.”
Kickoff between the Bears and Browns is slated for 1 p.m. ET on Saturday.
The Browns made a pair of roster moves on Thursday morning.
They announced the signing of cornerback Jeremiah McClendon. Cornerback Tyron Herring was waived with an injury designation in a corresponding move.
McClendon signed with the Saints after going undrafted in April, but was waived in late May. He had 59 tackles, two tackles for loss, two interceptions, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery while at Southern Illinois last season.
Herring signed with the Browns in May. He spent time on the practice squads of the Packers and Patriots in 2025.
The Browns play their first preseason game of the year on Saturday.
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.
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.
