The QB competition that’s polarizing due to both candidates for the Cleveland Browns.

The QB competition that’s polarizing due to both candidates for the Cleveland Browns.

(ThyBlackMan.com) It is clear that playing quarterback in the National Football League is the most challenging position in all of sports. The speed and athleticism on an NFL field heightens the challenges of consistently driving an offense down the field against complex NFL defenses designed to confuse and disrupt today’s talented signal callers. For the upcoming 2026 NFL season, most NFL teams will enter training camp this summer knowing who their starting quarterback will be. However, there are question marks for teams like the Atlanta Falcons, who have two QBs with extensive injury histories dating back to college, and the Cleveland Browns, who have regularly had starting QB questions since their return back to the NFL in 1999. This year, the Browns have a quarterback room with guys with notable college accolades in their past but who don’t have a ton of recent NFL success. Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and Taylen Green make up one of the more interesting and unsettled quarterback rooms in the National Football League that could also be polarizing for the main two guys expected to compete for the starting position.

NFL teams don’t usually keep four quarterbacks on their active roster so it is likely that either Dillon Gabriel or Taylen Green will not be on the active roster for the 2026 Cleveland Browns. Gabriel was a rookie QB last season who was taken ahead of Shedeur Sanders by the Browns during their 2025 NFL Draft class. While Gabriel threw seven touchdowns and only two interceptions during his rookie season, the Browns also only won one game out of the six he started in 2025, making him unlikely to be the starting QB for them in 2026. Taylen Green is a physically gifted rookie QB taken by the Browns in the sixth round. He is considered a raw long-term project that will not likely much if any game action on an NFL field during the 2026 regular season. This means that two former college star QBs, Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders will battle all summer to be the starting QB for the Browns when the season starts.

Deshaun Watson was once considered the long-term starting quarterback for the Houston Texans several years ago. A three-time Pro Bowl selection as an All Star, he led the Texans offense to the playoffs twice in his Houston career. Then, in 2021 things changed for the Texans and Watson forever. He was sued and accused by more than two dozen female massage therapists of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. He missed the entire 2021 NFL season and was eventually traded to the Cleveland Browns in one of the biggest trades in NFL history and also received a record-breaking contract. However, Watson hasn’t regained his Pro Bowl form since joining the Browns.

His opposition for the starting QB position for the Cleveland Browns is Shedeur Sanders. The son of NFL legend Deion Sanders, Shedeur made a name for himself in college playing for his father at both Jackson State, an HBCU, and Colorado as a productive QB. His drop to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft was arguably the biggest story of the entire 2025 NFL Draft due to his talent being considered greater than that of a mid-round pick but NFL teams seemed concerned by some aspects of Shedeur’s persona and the celebrity spotlight that accompanied him at college due to his father. His dad’s recent public comments about the Browns don’t help fight that perception as many have viewed Shedeur Sanders having a media magnet similar to another former college star QB Tim Tebow. For reasons that have nothing to do with football both Watson and Sanders are known by even some casual sports fans and now will compete to get more spotlight as the Browns starting quarterback for 2026.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines