The Cleveland Browns drafted Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green with the 182nd overall pick in the sixth round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Hours later, when he was asked about Shedeur Sanders – the second-year quarterback Green will be competing against – his answer felt like he was already thinking about the competition ahead.

“I don’t have a personal relationship with him, but what he did at Colorado and what he did last year was really good,” Green said. “I’m really excited to work with him and pick things up from him.”

But while clarifying that he doesn’t know Sanders personally, Green also recalled a previous encounter: “I went to Colorado and actually met Sheduer,” he said. “He’s a great guy, great leader. I can’t wait to build that connection with him.”

The former Arkansas quarterback has already met Sheduer and respects his skills. But Green doesn’t count that as a personal relationship yet. Since the recently drafted player will be competing for a starting job, that distinction is intentional.

Taylen Green now joins a quarterback room feat. Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and Deshaun Watson. And the front office already knows what he brings to the building. General Manager Andrew Berry, for one, has already praised the 23-year-old quarterback.

“He has size, he has elite speed, he has a big arm,” Berry said. “He’s going to need some polish with this game, but he has the work ethic, and he has the acumen to do so. So we’re looking forward to adding him to the roster and adding him to the mix in terms of competition.”

The developmental framing is honest – Green is a project just like Sanders and Gabriel were last season. But he ran a 4.36-second 40-yard dash at the combine, and posted a 43.5-inch vertical. What’s more, he’s coming off a season where he threw for 2,714 yards and 11 touchdowns across 12 games. He’s not going to be an afterthought in the QB room.

Meanwhile, Sanders already knows how the depth chart works in Cleveland. Joe Flacco opened the 2025 training camp as the starter. Sanders was the fifth-round pick sitting third on the depth chart behind Flacco and Gabriel. He still ended up starting seven games. The room kept reshuffling without warnings, and Sanders was the one still standing at the end of last season. Heading into the 2026 season, Sanders has already made it clear he’s competing.

“I feel like I was the man,” Sanders said during the voluntary minicamp. “I don’t let nobody else dictate how I feel about myself. If you allow that, then you living for the wrong reasons.”

Shedeur Sanders had already used the word “bulletproof” to describe his mindset long before Green was drafted. That confidence isn’t disconnected from reality. At Colorado, Sanders threw for 4,134 yards and 37 touchdowns in his final collegiate season.

As an NFL rookie, he posted 1,400 yards and 7 touchdowns across eight games (7 starts). But that was behind a fractured line that allowed 23 sacks on him. He was throwing to a receiver room that combined for just 1,467 receiving yards on the season, behind an offense that ranked 31st in passing yards per game. Sanders’ numbers might not look clean, but the lack of structure and initial first-team reps was the biggest reason for that.

Meanwhile, Deshaun Watson is back after sitting out the entire 2025 season with a second Achilles injury. Owner Jimmy Haslam has said that Watson has a “great chance” to be the starter. New head coach Todd Monken has given both Sanders and Watson first-team reps at minicamp, leaning slightly more towards Sanders. But the competition is still very much open. And that’s the room that Taylen Green now enters.

Green said the right things about Sanders for a player just one day into his NFL career. But the Browns didn’t spend a sixth-round pick on a clipboard holder. Green needs to make Cleveland keep thinking about him. And from his comments, it looks like he’s already started.

But none of that competition means anything without a functional offense around whoever wins it. That’s what Cleveland spent the rest of this draft building.

The Browns are finally building around the quarterback

Cleveland’s offensive line allowed 51 sacks last season and lost 345 yards in the process. Fixing that was the first order of business. They picked Spencer Fano, a tackle out of Utah, 9th overall in the draft, as the biggest addition. Austin Barber came in the third round from Florida. Cleveland had already signed Tytus Howard, Zion Johnson, and Elgton Jenkins in free agency. That’s five investments in one unit across a single offseason, and the receiver room was next.

The Browns used a heavy portion of their pre-draft visits on wide receivers – at least eight wideouts visited Berea before the draft. That list included KC Concepcion from Texas A&M and Denzel Boston out of Washington, both of whom ended up being picked in the first two rounds. They also brought in tight ends Joe Royer (5th round) and Carsen Ryan (7th round) to round things off.

The popular read on this offseason is that Cleveland is still engaged in the quarterback carousel from last year. Many have already pushed back on drafting Taylen Green, given that they already had three quarterbacks. But the new coaching staff has invested heavily in building its offense. Whoever wins the QB competition this year, he will have weapons worth fighting for.

Green said he doesn’t have a personal relationship with Shedeur Sanders. But he doesn’t need one. What the whole room needs is a fair competition and equal reps inside an offense that works. For the first time since Sanders and Gabriel arrived in Cleveland, they have one.