The Cleveland Browns ended the 2025 season with Shedeur Sanders as their starter and it's entirely possible that he starts Week 1 of 2026 in the same spot. But a recent bit of news suggests that the Browns are still looking at other options.
According to NFL insider Tom Pelissero, former Alabama QB Ty Simpson is taking an official visit with the Cleveland Browns this week. Simpson is considered the No. 2 QB in this year's draft after Indiana's Fernando Mendoza.
"Former Alabama QB Ty Simpson is on a visit with the Browns, per sources. The consensus QB2 in this year’s NFL Draft, Simpson is coming off a strong showing at the NFL combine. Cleveland owns the No. 6 and 24 picks," Pelissero wrote.
Granted, the Browns might not like what they see from Simpson and decide not to invest heavily in him. But if they do, that would spell bad news for Sanders.
Simpson completed 64.5-percent of his passes for 3,567 yards and 28 touchdowns for the Crimson Tide in 2025. He led the team to the SEC Championship Game and a win over Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff before falling to Indiana.
As Pelissero noted, the Browns have two first-round picks in this year's draft plus the 39th and 70th picks to use between rounds two and three. If they use any of those picks on Simpson, it would indicate pretty strongly that they want to invest heavily in someone other than Sanders.
© Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images.
Danger for Sanders?
Of all the QBs currently on the Browns roster, Sanders has the least actual capital invested in him. Deshaun Watson has tens of millions of dollars invested into his contract, which the Browns will undoubtedly try to get some kind of value from. Dillon Gabriel was a higher draft pick than Sanders was and also has more money tied to him than Sanders.
If anything, the Browns might see Sanders' starting experience as a chance to get even more draft capital from a team looking to take a chance on him.
Are the Browns already gearing up to move on from Shedeur Sanders?
