Shedeur Sanders once again finds himself in a tough spot, and this time he’s fighting to earn the starting job. He’s already had a steep fall for a quarterback who entered 2025 as a projected top-10 pick before sliding to the fifth round. Now, after starting seven of his eight game appearances for the Browns, the QB1 role seemed pretty easy to hold onto. But that ended the moment Deshaun Watson returned to full health.

With Watson back on the field, Sanders is facing a serious QB battle with him, and by the close of mandatory minicamp on June 11, Watson, not Sanders, was the one reportedly holding the edge, according to cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot. Still, despite the pressure, Sanders is making sure that outside noise doesn’t affect him.

“How do people in life be in, like, good situations and not feel good, or how do they not be in the best situations but could feel better than the person that’s in a great situation? You get what I’m saying? So it’s not even really about what situation you’re in, honestly; it’s about, like, what you think in your mind and what your reality is and not living the reality of the world,” Cleveland Browns QB Shedeur Sanders said on ESPN Cleveland.

“But that’s like, I read text scripts and everything, like, to make me like, ‘Bro, don’t, like, worry about what this world consists of when it comes to, like, values and stuff like that.’ Look at things differently. Knowing everything doesn’t really matter, but what matters is like your purpose in life, like what you’re on this earth for.”

This offseason is more stressful than ever for Sanders. Veteran Deshaun Watson remains the favorite to start in Week 1 as he enters the final season of his fully guaranteed $230 million contract. However, that does not necessarily close the door on Sanders.

During the Browns’ 2026 minicamp, Shedeur Sanders threw deep touchdown passes to wide receivers Denzel Boston and Isaiah Bond during full-team 11-on-11 drills, completed passes to tight ends Brenden Bates and Blake Whiteheart while working with the second-team offense, and even shared first-team practice reps with Deshaun Watson on the final day of minicamp. Sanders received the second-most first-team reps behind Watson.

Furthermore, per sources, head coach Todd Monken isn’t keen on moving away from all trust in Sanders, considering Watson’s deep injury history.

“Monken likes this kid,” one GM told SportsBoom. “Why would they trade him now?”

And even if the Browns wanted to move Sanders, league executives don’t believe they’d get much in return. He slid to the later rounds of the draft last year and hasn’t done enough since to significantly boost his trade value, with one executive estimating he’d fetch no more than a fifth-round pick.

Even if Sanders doesn’t become the long-term answer, the Browns could boost his value enough to eventually trade him for more than the draft capital they originally spent. That’s why one NFL personnel executive doesn’t expect Sanders to be dealt anytime soon. “I don’t think he’s going anywhere,” the executive said.