Report: Deshaun Watson emerged from Browns minicamp as favorite to be QB1

The Browns did not make any public pronouncements about their quarterback depth chart after last week’s minicamp practices, but it appears they have started to put one together behind the scenes.

Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports that Deshaun Watson came out of the minicamp as the favorite to be the team’s starting quarterback in Week 1. Watson and Shedeur Sanders both got first-team work in those practices, but Watson reportedly wound up with more reps with the starters.

Watson did not play at all in 2025 after tearing his Achilles, but he has a lot more experience than Sanders, Dillon Gabriel or rookie Taylen Green and that appears to be carrying a lot of weight for the Browns.

The team is installing a new offense under head coach Todd Monken and Watson has a longer history of learning different schemes over the course of his career. The rest of the Browns’ offense is also skewing young and the team values his ability to get those players in the right spots.

There’s about six weeks left in the offseason program and Sanders will have a chance to change the outlook, but Cabot writes that the second-year player “will have to dazzle the coaching staff to land atop the depth chart heading into training camp.”