Springtime workouts continue to be bad news for Browns' Shedeur Sanders amid Deshaun Watson competition

It was said as recently as Wednesday that the Cleveland Browns'  organized team activity practices have shown that veteran Deshaun Watson has a clear lead over 2025 rookie Shedeur Sanders in the competition for the team's starting quarterback job. 

During the latest edition of the "Orange and Brown Talk Podcast," Browns beat reporters Ashley Bastock and Mary Kay Cabot expanded on why it seems like Sanders is Cleveland's second-choice option heading into June. 

Deshaun Watson getting the bulk of the most important reps in practices?

"Deshaun Watson is the only one even doing that drill," Bastock said about the two-minute drill at the end of practices. "That is a very, very, very important drill. Your two-minute periods, your situational periods, your red-zone periods, those are incredibly important. So when you’re looking out there multiple times, and you’re saying, 'Oh, Deshaun Watson’s the only guy going,' that sort of automatically sets the pecking order to me." 

This revelation is hardly a surprise, as numerous reports shared since late April have indicated that the starting job is basically Watson's to lose. According to Cabot, Watson has acted during practices as if he "already knows the job is his." 

Have Browns already placed Deshaun Watson atop the depth chart over Shedeur Sanders?

"It seems like the quarterback depth chart has unofficially already been set," Cabot added during the podcast. "And you can see it in certain drills, like the individual drills. Deshaun goes first, Shedeur goes second, [2025 rookie Dillon Gabriel] goes third, [2026 sixth-round pick Taylen Green] goes fourth. That seems to be the unofficial depth chart right now."

Bastock and Cabot aren't alone. For an article published on Thursday morning, Browns reporter Zac Jackson of The Athletic wrote that "it’s fair to assume" Watson holds a lead in the competition for the starting job. 

Meanwhile, some have suggested that first-year Browns head coach Todd Monken wants to name a QB1 shortly after Cleveland's mandatory minicamp wraps up on June 11 so that the competition doesn't run through training camp and preseason games. If that truly is the case, Sanders realistically may not be able to do anything over the next two weeks to leapfrog Watson on the depth chart.