The Cleveland Browns named Deshaun Watson their starting quarterback to begin the 2026 NFL season over Shedeur Sanders.
Former NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick believes that could actually end up working to Sanders' benefit.
Fitzpatrick expressed his thoughts about Cleveland's quarterback battle during Amazon Prime Video's broadcast of the Browns vs. New England Patriots preseason game. The 43-year-old voiced little faith in Watson holding onto the starting job for the entire season.
"Once [Watson] fails, Shedeur's gonna jump into this thing, and he's going to be the guy," Fitzpatrick opined. "And this city is gonna be behind him."
Prime Video's color analyst, Kirk Herbstreit, quickly jumped in to ask Fitzpatrick to confirm he believed Watson would
fail as Cleveland's starter.
"Yeah, it's gonna happen," Fitzpatrick replied. "I mean, Shedeur's playing this year. I think all three of these guys – I think [Dillon] Gabriel's gonna have a chance to play as well."
Fitzpatrick is uniquely qualified to discuss the trials and tribulations of quarterback battles. He routinely had to battle for starting jobs across his 17 NFL seasons after being a seventh-round selection out of Harvard during the 2005 NFL Draft.
Fitzpatrick made 147 starts throughout his career but often had his role usurped by younger quarterbacks. Most notably, then-rookie Tua Tagovailoa took over for him during the 2020 NFL season with the Miami Dolphins despite Fitzpatrick completing 70.1% of his passes for 1,535 yards, 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions and leading the Dolphins to a 3-3 record across six starts.
As such, it's easy to understand why Fitzpatrick might envision a similar situation playing out with Watson, who has largely struggled across his four seasons in Cleveland to date.
Nonetheless, Fitzpatrick doesn't seem confident that any Browns quarterback will find success in 2026 as Todd Monken looks to set the foundation for his tenure as Cleveland's coach.
"This is such a young roster with a lot of changing parts and a lot of new guys, so they're gonna struggle on offense this year," Fitzpatrick said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Longtime NFL QB expects Deshaun Watson to fail with Browns: 'It's gonna happen'
