![\"Cleveland](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2175538819-e1775246276721.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.<\/p>\n
Deshaun Watson may still be in the mix for the Cleveland Browns<\/a>, but his long-term future with the franchise remains highly uncertain.<\/p>\n Watson is entering the final year of his fully guaranteed $230 million contract<\/a>, and the results haven\u2019t matched the investment. Since arriving in 2022, he\u2019s appeared in just 19 games, with the blockbuster trade widely viewed as a miss for Cleveland<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, Watson faces what could be his last opportunity to reset the narrative. He\u2019ll need to win a quarterback battle with Shedeur Sanders \u2014 and the Browns have made it clear that outcome will be earned, not assumed.<\/p>\n \u201cDeshaun has a great chance \u2014 fresh start, offensive-minded coach who has, in his past, been able to work with all kinds of different quarterbacks and make them successful,\u201d owner Jimmy Haslam said<\/a>. \u201cSo Deshaun has a great chance to do that now. We talked to him the other day. He said he weighed less than he had in several years, was in great shape. He\u2019ll be here on April 7 when we start (the offseason program), and let\u2019s see what Deshaun can do. We\u2019re all excited.\u201d<\/p>\n Deshaun Watson\u2019s Future in Cleveland Murky<\/p>\n Browns general manager Andrew Berry emphasized that the team\u2019s decision at quarterback won\u2019t be dictated solely by long-term outlook. While Watson is on an expiring deal, Sanders remains under team control through 2028 on a rookie contract \u2014 a factor that naturally tilts long-term planning.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly time horizon factors into that, but just with any veteran player, there\u2019s no rule against extending the player\u2019s contract if they perform and they do well,\u201d Berry said<\/a>. \u201cSo I wouldn\u2019t necessarily box it into any one approach. It really will be performance-based.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the external outlook paints a much steeper climb for Watson, per Zac Jackson of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMy own translation of Haslam saying Watson has a \u2018great chance\u2019 is that he means Watson has earned the chance to return to football, compete again and maybe reboot his career for 2027 and beyond,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThe chances of Watson being with the Browns past this season are extremely low \u2014 and the level at which he would have to play to even be the best option for a rebuilding 2026 Browns team is a level he\u2019s rarely performed at since 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n Shedeur Sanders Still Favorite in Browns QB Race<\/p>\n As Berry noted to reporters, no quarterback has \u201ctouched grass\u201d yet, making it hard to establish a favorite in what the team has dubbed an open competition. But Jackson believes the edge still belongs to Sanders.<\/p>\n \u201cI wholeheartedly believe there\u2019s excitement for Watson getting healthy and trying to come back from his injuries and previous failures in Cleveland,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cBut I feel stronger than ever that Sanders, not Watson, is the favorite to win the starting job. Sanders is 24 and signed for three more seasons. He was never the team\u2019s Plan A last season and might not be Plan A for the future, but giving Sanders every chance to win the job and make real progress is clearly the best option right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanders has been around the Browns facility this offseason, putting in the work to prepare for his second NFL campaign<\/a>. He started seven games as a rookie, passing for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJ.R. DeGroote<\/a> JR DeGroote is a staff writer for Heavy.com, where he has covered the NFL, NBA, and trending sports stories since 2019. His work focuses on some of the most passionate fanbases in sports, including reporting on the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Lakers. More about J.R. DeGroote<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Browns\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson. Deshaun Watson may still be in the mix for the Cleveland Browns,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-851920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}