The quarterback situation in Cleveland has a chance to get even messier if Deshaun Watson returns to the field this season.
Watson is still recovering from a twice-torn Achilles tendon, and all indications are that he will miss the entirety of the 2025 season.
Watson will watch from the sideline this yearGettyBut what if he doesn’t? What if Watson gets healthy at some point this year and is cleared to play. While unlikely, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
The Browns are currently trying to juggle Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders and newly acquired Tyler Huntley.
Describing Cleveland’s quarterback room as a logjam would be an understatement. They technically have a total of six quarterbacks on the roster, including Watson.
They would probably prefer to place Watson on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list for the entire season. According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, “They qualify for maximum insurance coverage (and eventually cap relief) if he can’t play.”
What if Deshaun Watson returns in 2025?
However, what if Watson is ahead of schedule? What if Watson is cleared to play? If that scenario presents itself, then the Browns would be hamstrung.
They would likely have to move him to the 53-man roster or release him. Letting go of Watson would put them on the hook for an unprecedented 2026 cap charge of $131 million.
In other words, Watson is highly likely to be going nowhere, at least not this year. If he did, that would all but dash any dreams of the young Sanders lining up under center on the shores of Lake Erie.
While the rookie has received much of the spotlight and fanfare, the first depth chart of the season begs to differ.
According to team insider Mary Kay Cabot, Sanders is listed as the fourth-string QB on Cleveland’s first ‘unofficial’ depth chart of the 2025 preseason.
Flacco is named as the starter, with Pickett and Gabriel behind him.
Much of the media attention has been centered the Browns’ QB1 competitionGetty Watson’s contract remains one of the worst in professional sportsGettyThe arrival of Huntley, who has a 5-9 record as a starter since arriving in the NFL five years ago, further suggests Shedeur could find his time limited in the coming weeks and months.
While the depth chart was posted before news of his signing broke, it seems he will leapfrog Sanders and walk straight into contention for Friday’s game against the Panthers.
“New QB Tyler Huntley will make the trip to Carolina and play in the preseason opener on Friday night (with Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett nursing hamstring injuries),” Cabot wrote on Monday night.
Sanders’ mountain to climb just got even higher. The hopes of the fifth rounder becoming a feel good story this season are slim.
Although not as slim as Watson returning. Most Browns fans would all agree that the Watson era in Cleveland has been an unmitigated disaster.
Even the team owner, Jimmy Haslem, has admitted the move, has not worked out
“We took a big swing-and-miss with Deshaun,” Haslam said in March at the league’s annual meeting.
“We thought we had the quarterback, we didn’t and we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him, so we’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole.
“An entire organization decision and it ends with Dee [Haslam] and I, so hold us accountable.”
From sending a treasure of draft picks, including three first-rounders to the Houston Texans in exchange for Watson, to signing him to a historic fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million deal, and legal drama off the field, it’s been a nightmare.
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There is a likelier chance that he never takes another snap for the franchise than he does returning.
As for what the quarterback position holds for Cleveland this year? It seems to be Flacco’s job to lose at this point, while Sanders is bringing up the rear.
Three weeks of preseason games get underway this week, and anything can still happen, but the Browns quarterback room is packed and six into 53 clearly is not going to happen.
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