Imagine spending $230 million on a quarterback who has played just 20 games for you. That’s the reality the Cleveland Browns have been living, and the debate it now has to answer before entering the 2026 season. But for quarterback Deshaun Watson, it’s not getting any easier.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith had no patience for the conversation on First Take Thursday. He looked straight into the camera and delivered his verdict for Watson.

“My God, how awful can you be?” Smith said. “There’s nowhere to go but up, and Deshaun Watson is still getting paid. Let me look on national TV and tell Deshaun Watson this: ‘If you can’t win the starting job in Cleveland this year, you need to retire… It’s over for you. You need to retire.’”

Not a hot take, but Stephen A. Smith’s message feels like a reckoning instead. Cleveland’s QB room features Watson, Shedeur Sanders, and Dillon Gabriel. And if a 3x Pro Bowler can’t claim the job in a room that includes two quarterbacks entering their sophomore year, the message writes itself.

Now, Watson hasn’t started a full season since 2020, when he played for the Houston Texans. In Cleveland, injuries have stolen his narrative repeatedly. A shoulder tear in 2023, a torn Achilles in 2024, then a second Achilles rupture during rehab that wiped out all of 2025. In his 19 starts with the Browns, Watson has posted 19 touchdowns, 12 picks, and absorbed a bruising 70 sacks.

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But it’s not all a lost cause for Watson. At least the new head coach, Todd Monken, seems to be giving him a runway to prove himself.

“I think that anytime that you have a player that at one time has exhibited the skill set at an elite level, you’re always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we’re going to be able to get that out of him,” Monken said at the NFL Combine. “I’m gonna let it play out.”

Watson, for his part, has been active on social media throughout 2025, posting health updates and training clips: the very image of a man fighting to get back under center. He even carries a back tattoo with an empty Super Bowl ring, waiting to be filled when he wins one. The drive isn’t gone. The question is whether the body can back it up and whether the Browns will give him a chance.

Now, the Browns’ quarterback problem isn’t new; it’s almost institutional. Last season, former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski ran an “open competition” all offseason, and it delivered Joe Flacco as the Week 1 starter. Flacco went 1-3 and got shipped off to the Cincinnati Bengals to fill in for Joe Burrow. Gabriel tried to lead Cleveland next, but his run ended with one win and six starts. Then Sanders finished 3-4, the best record any Browns quarterback posted in 2025. The QB carousel hasn’t just been costly; it’s been the franchise’s identity.

For now, Deshaun Watson still has a chance. If he can show Todd Monken he’s still got another 4,000-plus-yards season left in him, Watson could suit up. Whether the Dawg Pound would be happy to see their “hit-and-miss” back under center, though, is a different question entirely. But if Watson can’t win the job, does Shedeur Sanders step back in as the answer?

Browns’ 2026 expectations for Shedeur Sanders

Sanders’ 2025 campaign was raw but real. He completed 120 of 212 passes for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns, and 10 picks. They’re numbers that reflect a quarterback still learning NFL-speed decision-making. His pocket presence was shaky, and the turnovers were especially costly.

Still, he made a few plays that left even his teammates in awe, given the fact that he’d never had first-team reps before being pushed into the starting role. While it will still be an uphill climb for Shedeur Sanders, general manager Andrew Berry does see a clear trajectory up ahead.

“I think the biggest thing we want to see from Shedeur is just continued growth,” Berry said at the Combine. “I think he grew a lot from start one to start seven. Certainly, playing more efficiently, not putting the ball in harm’s way as much, will be important while maintaining the ability to produce out of structure and generate explosive plays.”

But that’s not enough to secure his starting role. Berry also highlighted that the offseason competition will finally determine who starts in Week 1. What’s more, the Browns haven’t closed the door on adding another veteran or rookie quarterback entirely.

“I think there’s always the possibility,” Berry said. “But we have a long way to go before we get to that point.”

Cleveland does have serious Draft capital with 10 picks, including two first-rounders (No. 6 & No. 24), which gives them plenty of options.

So everything converges on training camp. Whoever earns it there wears the crown. But until then, Cleveland’s quarterback room remains exactly what it has been for years: the most fascinating and frustrating question in the NFL.