Sports · Browns quarterbackBrowns Watson starting job: Monken picks Deshaun Watson over Shedeur SandersAired November 12, 2026 at 2:12 AM UTCWatchTranscript0:00Browns Watson starting job, Monkin picks Deshaun Watson over Shadur Sanders.0:07Scheduler Sanders threw for290,7 yards and two touchdowns, and he's going back to0:11the bench.0:12The Browns have handed the starting job back to Deshaun Watson.0:15He's in the last year of a two hundred and thirty million dollar contract, and by0:19one key efficiency measure, he ranks twenty-eight of thirty, one qualifying0:22quarterbacks.0:23What nobody in Cleveland has said is how long Watson's leash is.0:26The Browns made it official Wednesday.0:28Watson starts Sunday at Huntington Bank Field against the Houston Texans, his former0:33team.0:33That's three days after Sanders came within a single two-point conversion of winning0:37in New Orleans.0:38Head coach Todd Monkin said Watson was the plan all along.0:41He pointed to Watson's five and three record as a starter and how hard he'd worked0:45to get back.0:46He said the call rested on Watson's full body of work this season.0:49On Monday, Monkin wouldn't name a starter.0:51On Wednesday, he explained the wait.0:53He'd watched the film and talked with ownership, but he hadn't met with his staff0:57yet, and he wanted them to agree on the way forward.1:00In his words, it was pretty simple.1:01Meh Last Sunday at the Superdome was Sanders' first start of the season.1:05After about ten weeks without first team reps, he went nineteen of thirty, one with1:10no interceptions.1:11He hit rookie Casey Concepcion Jr.1:13for a sixty-four-yard fourth quarter touchdown, the first of Concepcion's career.1:17In overtime, Tyler Schuve's fifteen-yard touchdown to Juwan Johnson put New Orleans1:21ahead.1:22Sanders answered with a thirty-nine-yard catch and run by tight-end Harold Fannon1:27Jr.1:27Then Cleveland went for two, and the win, instead of kicking to tie, the Saints rush1:32got there right away.1:33Sanders scrambled right through incomplete toward rookie Denzel Boston, and it was1:37over.1:38The Saints won twenty, three to twenty, two.1:40Linebacker Carson Schwesinger had a career: high fifteen tackles and two sacks in1:44the loss.1:44Cleveland fell to five and four.1:46Its first back, two back losses of the season, and sits third in the AFC North.1:51Right after the game, Monkin said he was really proud of Sanders.1:54He wasn't perfect.1:55I wasn't perfect.1:56He said, for a guy who hadn't taken snaps with the starters in ten weeks.2:00We'll keep watching how long Watson holds this job.2:03Subscribe to this channel to follow the Browns quarterback call, and find more at2:07heyday dot news.2:08Watson cleared the concussion protocol the day before the Saints game, and he still2:12didn't play.2:13It started with a helmet.2:14Two helmet hit at Pittsburgh in week eight.2:17He reported concussion symptoms on November three and entered the protocol the next2:20day.2:21He missed two practices, got no team reps Friday, and cleared on November seven.2:25On Sunday, he was still inactive.2:27So Watson was technically cleared, but only a day out and without a full team2:31practice all week.2:32By QBR, a rating of a quarterback's overall efficiency, Sanders' one start nearly2:36matched Watson's whole season.2:38Watson has completed sixty-five point five percent of his passes for one, eight2:42hundred and six yards, seven touchdowns, and three interceptions.2:45His QBR of forty point nine ranks twenty-eight of thirty one.2:48Sanders posted a forty point two in New Orleans, the second best single game of his2:52career.2:52Watson's case is the record.2:54The Browns went five and three with him, and five of those games had a fourth2:58quarter go, a header game, winning drive.3:00He's also run for two hundred and seventeen yards and a touchdown, but he's been3:04sacked thirty-three times in eight games, and the team scores seventeen point nine3:08points a game, twenty-nine in the league.3:10Watson tore his Achilles in two thousand and twenty-four tour it again in January3:14two thousand and twenty-five and missed that entire season.3:16He won the job back in camp, and his return at Jacksonville in September ended in a3:21thirty-four minus ten loss.3:23These eight games are his most in a season since two thousand and twenty.3:26This is the last year of Watson's five year two hundred and thirty million dollar3:30contract, a deal the Browns have all but admitted they regret.3:33Sunday will be only Watson's second career game against Houston.3:36Cleveland traded for him in March2022.3:38He then served an eleven game suspension after more than two dozen women accused him3:43of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during massage sessions.3:46His Browns debut came against the Texans.3:49Watson says that now I think both sides have moved on.3:52Sanders was once projected as a top five pick, then fell to the fifth round of the3:57two thousand and twenty-five draft and opened that season third on the depth chart.4:00Joe Flacco was traded.4:02Dylan Gabriel got a concussion, and Sanders won his first start and kept the job.4:06He's now three and five as a starter.4:08Watson says he never worried about losing his spot.4:11Asked whether he had any doubt he'd stay the starter, he said, No, there wasn't.4:15Asked whether the job is his for the rest of the season, Watson put it on his coach4:18and the front office.4:20My job, he said, is to come in and win the day.4:23Watson returns Sunday at home after a three game road trip, with Cleveland trying to4:27end a two game skid.4:29He's on an expiring deal and near the bottom of the league in efficiency, and his4:32backup just moved the offense in New Orleans.4:34Monkin hasn't said how long Watson's leash runs.4:37For Sunday against Houston, the job is Watson's.Story timelineHeyDex
