Deshaun Watson was the first quarterback to work on individual drills when the Cleveland Browns opened their voluntary minicamp April 21, faking a toss to his right and throwing a 20-yard pass to a staffer before repeating the rep. He ceded the drill to Shedeur Sanders, with Dillon Gabriel completing the group; Watson and Sanders then split first-team reps in team drills, providing the first clear snapshot of a quarterback competition centered on the two players.
Watson, 30, had been largely out of the public eye for the previous 19 months while rehabbing two tears to his right Achilles and sitting out the entire 2025 season. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam previously called the franchise’s 2022 trade for Watson a “big swing-and-miss,” remarks made during league meetings in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Browns acquired Watson from the Houston Texans in March 2022 in a package that included three first-round picks and three other draft selections and signed him to a five-year, $230 million contract that was then a record for guarantees. Since that trade, Watson has appeared in 19 games amid a combination of suspension and injuries.
Watson began his Cleveland tenure serving an 11-game suspension and paying a $5 million fine after more than two dozen women accused him of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct; two Texas grand juries declined to pursue criminal charges a week before the trade. He completed a treatment program after the NFL and NFL Players Association reached a disciplinary settlement in August 2022. Watson went 3-3 as a starter in the Browns’ final six games of 2022 but registered a 40.4 QBR, then missed the final nine games of 2023 after season-ending shoulder surgery. He suffered a right Achilles tendon tear on Oct. 20, 2024, missed the remainder of that season and all of 2025 after a second surgery in January 2025.
With Watson healthy and entering the final year of his fully guaranteed $230 million contract, the veteran is working under new coach Todd Monken as the Browns continue searching for a franchise quarterback. Gabriel started six games and Sanders seven last season; the two combined for a 4-9 record and posted QBRs that would have ranked last among qualified players. “Deshaun has a great chance, fresh start, offensive-minded coach, who has, in his past, been able to work with all kinds of different quarterbacks and make him successful,” Haslam said at the league meetings in Phoenix.
