The national perspective on the Cleveland Browns quarterback situation remains remarkably grim heading into the 2026 season. In the latest edition of Mike Sando’s annual Quarterback Tiers article for The Athletic, NFL head coaches, general managers, and coordinators pooled their candid evaluations on potential starting signal-callers.
For Cleveland, the feedback could hardly be worse.
Both Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders landed firmly in the basement of the league, with Sanders anchoring the list at dead last, ranked 35th out of 35 candidates.
The survey paints a alarming picture of a position group that continues to drag down the organization. While Watson did not finish at the absolute bottom, his 31st overall ranking reflects an almost total
loss of faith from league insiders across the board.
Deshaun Watson is historically bad
Sando noted that Watson is one of 60 quarterbacks to start at least 10 games since Cleveland acquired him in 2022, yet he ranks 59th among them in Expected Points Added (EPA) per pass play—placing him barely ahead of Zach Wilson at 60th.
Evaluators around the league offered brutal assessments of Watson's decline.
“You’re not projecting he is going to go the whole season and be a guy at this point, are you?” one general manager asked.
An offensive coach went even further in questioning Watson's foundational traits.
“I don’t think he can come back,” the coach said. “You do not all of a sudden get drive and desire and processing skills. He showed he had none of that with what he put on film.”
A former general manager admitted to being completely baffled by Watson's trajectory.
“I don’t even know what to do with him,” the former executive said. “It’s been so long. It’s almost like a no-grade with him.”
The numbers paint an equally bleak narrative.
Over his 19 total games in a Cleveland uniform, Watson’s dropback EPA plummeted to -0.20 in 2023 and -0.30 in 2024. He completed 61.2 percent of his passes and had an 80.7 passer rating along with several single-digit QBR outings. Watson also absorbed 70 sacks for a 13 percent sack rate before suffering a season-ending Achilles injury in 2024.
Shedeur Sanders ranked 35th out of 35
While Watson’s career has stalled, Shedeur Sanders sits at the very bottom of the NFL quarterback hierarchy in Sando's project. The second-year passer came in 35th out of 35 potential starters.
Sando highlighted that among the 37 quarterbacks who started at least seven games last season, Sanders ranked dead last in EPA per pass play, finishing directly behind J.J. McCarthy and Cam Ward.
League evaluators pulled no punches regarding the young passer's baseline skill set.
“He’s inaccurate at all three levels,” one executive stated. “I can’t tell if he is going to get better, but there’s a huge gap between him and competent QB play.”
Opposing defensive coordinators expressed supreme confidence when preparing to face the rookie.
“I'd sleep like a baby if I got to play him every week,” one defensive coordinator admitted.
Another defensive coordinator offered a detailed breakdown of Sanders' tape from his rookie campaign.
“He’s not an on-time player, can’t really read through the coverages, is a little bit heavy-footed,” the coordinator explained. “He is thicker and harder to tackle than expected, but you shouldn’t lose to him.”
Not every voice was entirely dismissive. One head coach offered a slightly more optimistic perspective on how Cleveland handled the rookie.
“I thought he was all right, better than expected,” the coach noted. “They did a good job with him of making the game simple.”
Another voter, an offensive coach, pointed to Cleveland's coaching change as a potential catalyst for growth.
“Todd Monken is a great reset in the same way Ben Johnson was a great reset in Chicago,” the offensive coach said. “Shedeur gets a fresh start with a no-nonsense, offensive-oriented coach who did a really good job with Lamar Jackson.”
The same voter added that Sanders' future rests entirely on his preparation.
“If Shedeur has really invested in himself to be a professional quarterback, studying the playbook and knowing his assignments and being able to get the offense in and out of the huddle at an efficient clip, which he could not do last year, then there might be some upside,” the voter said.
The advanced stats from his 2025 rookie campaign underscore why consensus proved so harsh.
Across eight games and 255 dropbacks, Sanders posted a Pro Football Focus grade of 44.1, an 18.9 QBR, and a 68.1 passer rating. His passing grade dropped to 39.0 under pressure.
He threw for 1,400 yards with 7 touchdowns against 10 interceptions, ranking 42nd among passers with a 42.3 passing grade. He also had 10 big-time throws and 15 turnover-worthy plays, leading to a high 5.9 percent turnover-worthy play rate.
For Todd Monken, the path forward in Cleveland is undeniably steep. Inheriting a quarterback room where the high-priced veteran is viewed as a shell of his former self and the second-year prospect has been branded the league's least refined potential starter presents an extraordinary.
Unless Monken can engineer a dramatic turnaround in processing and mechanics for either passer, the Browns run the risk of remaining stuck in the NFL's basement at the most critical position in sports.
This article originally appeared on Browns Wire: Browns QB room blasted in new rankings by The Athletic
