Shedeur Sanders entered the offseason with the intention of beating Deshaun Watson in the quarterback battle as Todd Monken looked to right the Cleveland Browns’ struggling ship after a disappointing 2025 NFL season. Marred by a series of injuries and unstable quarterback play, the Browns ended the campaign with a 5-12 record, which eventually culminated in Kevin Stefanski’s firing and Monken’s appointment as the new head coach.
Monken had two extremely different quarterbacks to pick from in the form of Watson and Sanders. While Watson possessed a wealth of experience, Sanders brought the exuberance of youth to the table. This was a huge call for Monken as he looked to start the new season on a high note.
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After evaluating both Sanders and Watson, Monken eventually decided to go with Watson. The decision raised a lot of eyebrows. What made matters worse was Watson’s performance in the Browns’ first regular-season game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The veteran failed to find his feet as the Browns were thrashed 34-10 by the Jaguars.
But Watson has completely flipped the script ever since and has performed at a high level in the next three games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers. The consequence of this has been limited playing time for Sanders, along with trade rumors around the former Colorado quarterback.
There have been contradictory reports around Sanders, who has been in the middle of these trade rumors. While Mary Kay Cabot and Cleveland.com initially reported that the Browns had no plans of trading him, Jeremy Fowler recently reported that the Browns would be open to trading him at the right price.
There is another report that has come out after the Browns’ game against the Steelers. Browns beat reporter Daryl Ruiter took to X and said that one source told him the Browns are not looking to trade Sanders. He wrote, “Browns are not looking to trade QB Shedeur Sanders.”
“They really like how Sanders has developed under Todd Monken this year and want to keep developing him. There is absolutely nothing cooking there,” he added.
The Browns will face the New York Jets in their next game on Sunday, as they look to continue this winning run.
