Here’s a little thought experiment that’s going to tie into the Browns’ decision to start Deshaun Watson over Shedeur Sanders, I promise:
When’s the last time you sat down at a specific, prescribed time to watch a TV show? At, say, 8 p.m. on a Thursday or 9 p.m. on a Saturday? Probably been years, even decades, right? We’re in an on-demand world now, where viewers hold the power. There’s no such thing as prime time — you can see where this is going, I bet — any more.
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Sanders arrived in the NFL on a tsunami of hype, whipped up and fueled by his famous father. Now, it’s not unusual for dads to overestimate the skills of their sons — that’s the foundation of the entire youth sports industrial complex, after all — but when your father is Deion “Prime Time” Sanders, well, dad’s bellowing from the sidelines carries a whole lot further.
We don’t need to re-litigate everything from Shedeur’s career that led him from his father’s house to the Cleveland sideline — the decent-but-not-spectacular college career, the fifth-round NFL Draft selection that was either a stunning plunge or a proper assessment, the rookie season that pinballed between glory and agony. What’s indisputable is this:
Sanders had every chance to claim the Cleveland Browns‘ starting QB job for himself. Hell, the Browns surely wanted Sanders to seize the job, if only so that they could start to distance themselves from a frontrunner for the worst trade and worst contract in NFL history. And he didn’t get it done.
The opportunity was there. In 2025, Sanders started the final seven games of the Browns’ lost season — in Cleveland, is there any other kind? — and led the team to a 3-4 record. Over the course of the offseason, the Browns focused their free-agency efforts on positions other than quarterback, suggesting that new head coach Todd Monken was happy to stand pat with his current hand of QBs — Sanders, Watson, Dillon Gabriel and rookie Taylen Green. (Whether this was a defensible strategy is a different question.)
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Over the weekend, Sanders, who got the start against Buffalo, was decent but not necessarily spectacular, going 9-of-11 for 74 yards with a touchdown and a behind-the-receiver interception. Watson, meanwhile, went three-and-out on his first two drives, leading to boos from the Browns’ grandstands. Watson would later call those boos “disrespectful,” not exactly what you want to hear from your starting QB — or your fans — with just a few weeks left until Week 1.
Monken appears to be siding with Watson for his veteran presence and, well, not much else. Watson hasn’t played since October 2024. Sidelined by both suspension and injury, he’s seen action in just 19 of a possible 85 Browns games since joining Cleveland after the 2020 season. With a contract too massive to escape or pawn off on anyone else, the Browns had little choice but to see what, if anything, they could wring out of Watson.
So where does that leave Sanders? On a rapidly shrinking island.
Already legendary for churning through quarterbacks over the course of its history, Cleveland started an incredible five different QBs in 2023, four in 2024 and three, including Sanders, last year. If Shedeur wasn’t able to fight his way out of that dogpile, what does that say about his prospects going forward?
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Sanders’ supporters love to claim he hasn’t received a fair shake — it’s the same complaint that Tim Tebow‘s disciples lodged, year after subpar year — and the fact that Watson got the majority of first-team reps in preseason will only fuel that ongoing conspiracy. But if Watson struggles — and Monken has made it clear he expects immediate results — Sanders should get yet another opportunity to prove himself. The question now ahead of Sanders: How many more of those opportunities will he squander?
Prime Time is already history. And now Shedeur Sanders is quickly running out of time to carve his own space, too.
