Shedeur Sanders believes Browns confidence is rising ahead of defining QB decision

Shedeur Sanders believes Browns confidence is rising ahead of defining QB decision originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

>Shedeur Sanders pulled the Cleveland Browns together for an offseason trip to Miami. No team mandate, no front office instruction. He organized it himself.

>For a franchise that has missed the playoffs back-to-back and limped to a 5-12 finish in 2025, the second-year quarterback doing that kind of thing voluntarily says something. There is no proof that Sanders is ready to lead an NFL team. But it is evidence that he wants to try.

>His reading of where things stand with the group is worth noting. "I would say it's just a different space that we're all in," Sanders said. "As a team, as individuals, we all feel more confident in ourselves and that's what we thrive on."

>Sanders went 5-12 as a starter, posted an unflattering turnover rate, and still earned a Pro Bowl selection, which tells a complicated but ultimately encouraging story. A late-season back-to-back wins over Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, Cleveland's first win streak since November, gave the coaching staff something concrete to build from heading into camp.

Deshaun Watson's Comeback Bid Meets Shedeur Sanders' Upside in Camp Fight Neither Side Is Treating as SettledThe quarterback battle in Berea this August will answer a question that has split Browns observers since April: Can Deshaun Watson's body still do this at the NFL level?

>Watson missed every snap of the 2025 season, working back from a right Achilles tendon that he tore twice within four months. Cleveland restructured his contract to recover cap space, pushing portions of his $230 million guarantee further into the future, but the financial reshuffling does not answer the football question.

>Beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot observed in April that Watson held an edge after voluntary workouts. By the time of the mandatory minicamp in June, Cabot was writing that Sanders had narrowed that margin considerably, crediting his sharper command of the playbook and cleaner execution in practice.

>Sanders, 24, spoke at a youth camp this week and was measured in how he framed the competition.

>"We're both trying to be the best version of ourselves we could be," he said on NFL's The Insiders. "We're not going to let anything get in between that. So it's a level of respect that we all in the quarterback room have for each other. We mainly focus on and thrive on getting better in the work every day. So if I like something he's doing, I ask. If he likes something I do, then asks. It's conversation, and that's what's most effective."

>Watson's ceiling is known to be high. His 2020 season in Houston, 4,800-plus passing yards and 33 touchdowns, remains the benchmark for what he could theoretically produce.

>The gap between that version and the one Monken will evaluate in camp is the central football question of Cleveland's 2026 season. Sanders, by contrast, has no known ceiling. That asymmetry is what makes this worth watching when training camp opens in August.

More NFL News:Why Seahawks did not reward Sam Darnold with a pay raise for Super Bowl win

• >Jets’ RB signing keeps them competitive, not elite

• >John Harbaugh offers update on Giants' pursuit of Odell Beckham Jr.

• >49ers lose key recovery edge to Rams in Week 2 schedule twist Shanahan won't forget