The Browns Are Delusional if They Think Deshaun Watson is Still Their Answer

Let me be crystal clear about something. The Cleveland Browns organization has officially lost its mind if they believe Deshaun Watson is the legitimate frontrunner for the starting quarterback position heading into the 2025 season. This is not opinion wrapped in nuance. This is not debate masquerading as analysis. This is fact wrapped in the most obvious reality staring the Browns directly in the face, and they are choosing to ignore it because they have too much ego and too much money invested in a decision that has already proven catastrophically wrong.

The Browns paid Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed contract worth over $230 million. That is not a number that gets casually mentioned in passing. That is generational wealth for a player who has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns in the time since signing that deal. That is a financial commitment so astronomically large that it has warped the entire decision-making process of an NFL franchise. The Browns cannot admit failure because admitting failure means admitting they made the worst quarterback investment in professional sports history. So instead of facing reality, they huddle around Watson like he is still the transformational talent he was supposed to be, and they pretend that a room full of younger, fresher options does not exist in the same building.

I want you to understand what is actually happening here. The Cleveland Browns have Shedeur Sanders, who is one of the most talented and prepared young quarterbacks to enter the NFL in recent memory. Sanders is a first-round draft pick. He is a Heisman-caliber player who has been groomed for professional football his entire life. He understands pressure, he understands expectations, and he understands what it takes to perform at the highest level when everything is on the line. The Browns also have Dillon Gabriel and Taylen Green in that room. These are options with genuine upside, with youth on their side, with uncertainty that actually tilts toward the positive rather than the deeply negative.

Meanwhile, Deshaun Watson has played in 23 games over two seasons for the Browns organization. In that span, Watson has thrown 19 touchdown passes and 20 interceptions. Twenty interceptions. He is a turnover machine masquerading as a franchise quarterback. His yards per attempt have declined. His decision-making has been erratic at best and reckless at worst. When he has been healthy enough to play, he has not moved the needle. The Browns have not made the playoffs. The Browns have not won more games with Watson starting than they won the season before they traded for him. This is not a quarterback in transition who needs time to figure things out. This is a quarterback who has had time, who has had opportunity, and who has flatly failed to deliver.

The report that Watson is the frontrunner is not surprising given the organizational dynamics at play, but it is absolutely infuriating because it represents a franchise doubling down on failure rather than embracing the opportunity to move forward. Kevin Stefanski is still the head coach. Andrew Berry is still the general manager. These are the men who orchestrated the Watson trade. These are the men whose legacy is now tied to making this work, regardless of whether it actually does work. So of course they are saying Watson is the frontrunner. Of course they are publicly backing him. What else are they going to do? Walk into a press conference and admit they made a franchise-altering mistake? Of course not. That is not how front offices operate, especially front offices with this much pride and this much sunk cost already invested.

But here is what needs to happen, and here is where I am going to differ dramatically from the mainstream consensus. The Cleveland Browns need to rip the band-aid off immediately. They need to make the hardest decision a front office can make, which is admitting they were spectacularly wrong. They need to release Deshaun Watson or trade him, even if it means eating a massive amount of dead cap money. Yes, that is financially painful. Yes, that is organizationally embarrassing. But you know what is worse? Spending another season with a quarterback who does not work while younger, more talented options sit on the bench. You know what is worse? Spinning another year of mediocrity or worse while pretending that the problem will fix itself if you just believe hard enough and give it one more chance.

Shedeur Sanders should be getting every starting snap in training camp. He should be getting the first-team reps. He should be getting the opportunity to prove he belongs in this league without the handicap of watching a fully guaranteed $230 million albatross get priority treatment. The same goes for Gabriel and Green. These young men deserve to compete fairly for the position without the organizational weight of a bad investment pressing down on their shoulders. They deserve to be developed without wondering in the back of their minds whether they are really being given a legitimate shot or whether management has already decided the starter before camp even begins.

The most infuriating part about this entire situation is that it is completely avoidable. The Browns do not have to do this to themselves. They do not have to continue down this path of denial and dysfunction. They could change course right now. They could make the announcement that Shedeur Sanders is going to be the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns in 2025. They could wipe the slate clean. They could start building something that actually has a future instead of clinging to something that has already proven to be a dead end. But they will not do that because they do not have the courage to do that.

Instead, we are going to get another season of the same narrative. We are going to get Watson getting the benefit of the doubt because he is the one the franchise committed to. We are going to get him getting the first opportunities when he is healthy. We are going to get the public statements about leadership and experience and why youth needs to develop on the bench before getting their chance. We are going to get the same excuses and the same explanations for why this year will be different, why Watson will finally click, why the system will finally work with him in it. And when it does not work, when Watson throws interceptions and loses games and the Browns are sitting at six and eleven in December, suddenly there will be an emergency switch to one of the young guys, and everyone will act like it was a brilliant midseason adjustment rather than an admission of organizational incompetence.

This is what the Cleveland Browns have become. This is the level of dysfunction and denial that has infected the entire organization from top to bottom. They made a historically bad decision, and instead of correcting course, they are doubling down and pretending the people they drafted and the options they have in house are less qualified than the guy who has already proven he cannot get the job done.

VERDICT: The Browns backing Watson over Sanders is not a football decision. It is an ego decision dressed up as organizational caution. Shedeur Sanders will eventually start for this team, but only after wasting valuable development time on the bench waiting for Watson to fail all over again. That is not how you build a winning organization. That is how you guarantee another losing season while patting yourselves on the back for making all the "right" veteran decisions. The Browns have the foundation to compete. Instead, they are choosing to compete against themselves. That is the real story here.