Shedeur Sanders could begin 2026 season as Browns’ starter. They still should draft a QB

It’s time to start your mock drafting. And be ready to dig in on your quarterback stances.

The 2026 NFL offseason is officially underway. Two weeks before the start of the NFL Scouting Combine, all 32 teams are holding draft meetings, while some — like the Cleveland Browns — also work to finalize their coaching staffs.

Here at the Browns quarterback tracker headquarters, we’re focusing on draft-eligible passers that Cleveland might select between the late first round and early third round of April’s draft. It’s not too early to begin looking at the March 9 start of the player movement period, nor to file a fairly safe prediction that the Browns will be heavily involved with the 2026 draft class.

Shedeur Sanders should have the opportunity to demonstrate further development and win the job he held for the final seven games of the 2025 season. But the rebuilding Browns should also be thinking about how they’re going to attack the quarterback position over the next 15 months, even if they hold out hope that Sanders can become a quality starter.

As expected, new Browns coach Todd Monken offered no real clues on the team’s thinking during his first week on the job. Monken is busy finalizing his staff, catching up on offensive personnel, and getting familiar with the front office’s thinking on how to approach remakes of the offensive line and wide receiver groups.

For now, the Browns have three quarterbacks on the roster: Sanders, Dillon Gabriel and holdover Deshaun Watson, who’s returning from a season on the physically unable to perform list and will only be around for the final year of his contract because the Browns can’t afford to cut him.

At some point, the Browns will restructure Watson’s contract again, lowering his current salary-cap number of around $80 million to around $40 million. If Watson were cut now, his cap number would remain around $80 million, leaving the Browns with little flexibility to address other areas.

The 2022 trade for Watson, which cost the Browns three first-round picks, is not just a nightmare. It’s a lingering, recurring nightmare as Watson enters the final year of his fully guaranteed $230 million deal. As it stands, the Browns will still have around $90 million in cap commitments to Watson, likely to be divided across 2027 and 2028.

With two months before the start of the offseason program and 10 weeks before the draft, Sanders is probably first in the Browns’ quarterback line, though the depth chart remains fluid. Watson is either at No. 2 or No. 3 because he has to be on the team, and a return to the field remains a realistic option unless Sanders can claim the job and keep it. Gabriel is a backup whose NFL future might be elsewhere, but Cleveland shouldn’t feel rushed to move on.

At his introductory news conference, Monken said the quarterback order “is still to be determined.” But he added that he’s “excited” about Sanders and “all the quarterbacks in the room.”

In an interview with the Browns’ in-house media team, Monken said he’s “excited to get started with the guys we have in the room now and then looking to add to that, possibly. You’ve got to have a quarterback to give yourself a chance to win in this league. We know that. You also have to have good players around that guy to really get it going.

“I’m excited about Shedeur, Deshaun, Dillon and who else we might add to that in terms of competition to really make this thing take off.”

With the Browns holding picks Nos. 6 and 24 in a draft that only has one sure-fire first-round passer — and that quarterback, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, seemingly certain to go No. 1 — the Browns will prepare to play the waiting game.

At the risk of being wrong because it’s early and because, well, the Browns’ recent quarterback decisions haven’t exactly been spectacular, I don’t believe they will end up being a real suitor for Malik Willis, likely the top available free-agent quarterback. And I don’t believe Cleveland is a real potential landing spot for Kyler Murray if Arizona decides to move on.

I can see the Browns entertaining a potential trade, but I predict they pass on those ideas and give Sanders a runway to be the No. 1 quarterback for the summer and early fall.

But nothing beyond that. I predict the team will use this year’s draft to add another eventual competitor to the mix. Maybe Sanders will win the job, or maybe a 2026 draft pick like Alabama’s Ty Simpson, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier or Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss will eventually become Cleveland’s 43rd starting quarterback since 1999.

To me, though, everything points to 2027. This year, Sanders has a chance to build on what he did late in 2025 and demonstrate to Monken that he’s ready to leap. Watson stands as a fallback option because he has to be. Maybe he’s a true wild card, but little Watson did in his first three seasons in Cleveland suggests he will suddenly be an answer to leading a playoff contender.

If the Browns like a draft-eligible prospect and find themselves positioned to get one, that player looms as next in line, but won’t necessarily have been drafted high enough to prevent another shift in thinking ahead of 2027.

Starting the draft with an offensive tackle or wide receiver at No. 6, addressing the other at No. 24, and then using a pick. No. 39 (or another pick via trade) for a quarterback seems like a sensible plan. Maybe the Browns will push the quarterback priority down based on really liking Sanders or not really liking any of their options, but last year’s trade for the extra 2026 first-round pick was most certainly made with a quarterback in mind.

Even before the two Achilles injuries Watson suffered, the Browns already had to be thinking about an exit plan.

At Monken’s introduction, general manager Andrew Berry said the Browns could be the league’s youngest team in 2026. That’s part of the long escape from the Watson debacle and part of the team holding 10 draft picks after they kept 14 rookies on the 53-man roster for much of 2025.

The Browns expect and hope to be better in 2026, but unless the offense makes great strides and the team hits on its early draft selections, any real forecast should include a strong possibility of excitement for another early draft pick in 2027.

We expect this year’s draft to bring Cleveland at least two offensive linemen and possibly three. We can fairly guess that wide receiver help is coming via trade or free agency, or early in the draft. Beyond that, the only real certainty is that the Browns hold their opinion of Sanders’ chances close to the vest for the next 10 weeks.

Soon, we’ll see how teams view Simpson, a one-year college starter, and Nussmeier, who almost certainly would have gone in the top 40 picks last year but returned to school and had a disappointing, injury-riddled season. Chambliss is going through the court system trying to get another year of college eligibility and has a hearing scheduled for Thursday. Presumably, Chambliss and NFL teams will want a clear answer soon.

Beyond those three, the Browns might look at developmental prospects such as Taylen Green of Arkansas and Cole Payton of North Dakota State in Round 3 or later. We’ll continue to track all options and viable prospects in the coming weeks, but the start of the combine always marks the beginning of speculation and rumor season. Here at the tracker, we’re trying to be slightly ahead of the curve.

The quarterback-needy New York Jets pick at No. 2, also hold the Indianapolis Colts’ pick at No. 16, then have the first pick of the second round at No. 33. In Monday’s mock draft by The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner, Simpson went to the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 21, and the Jets landed Chambliss at No. 33.

At No. 39, Nussmeier was projected to go to the Browns. It’s too early to know what teams think of these prospects, or whether Chambliss will be in the draft, but the back half of the first round through the first 10 picks of the second is a good range to begin guessing and positioning.

NFL MVP Matthew Stafford said last week that he’ll be back with the Los Angeles Rams in 2026, but the Rams hold pick Nos. 13 and 29 in the first round and might need to consider their quarterback of the future. If Simpson gets by the Steelers at No. 21 or even the Browns at No. 24, would teams then look to trade back into the first round to get ahead of the Rams or Jets in the second? Can Nussmeier use the next two months to make himself a coveted prospect again?

That’s enough guessing and projecting for now. The Browns hired Monken because he has shown the ability to craft and improve offenses at multiple levels, and he returns to Cleveland fully aware that this quarterback situation is less than ideal and fairly wide open.

Monken will continue to say the right things without revealing the team’s true plans, but decision deadlines loom. The Browns giving Sanders the first crack at winning the job makes sense. But they are a team that’s mostly looking at least a year into the future, and that probably means making another quarterback investment fairly early in this year’s draft.