The Cleveland Browns opened the preseason with a loss to the Chicago Bears, but the game offered another important evaluation point in their ongoing quarterback competition. Deshaun Watson started the 34-10 defeat and produced a strong statistical line in his first game action since 2024, but the Browns had not named him or Shedeur Sanders their regular-season starter. Sanders was set to start the second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills as Cleveland continued to assess both quarterbacks.

“All these kids, their teams get behind them. They try to develop them. They give them the most amount of reps,” Rizzo said on The Really Big Show. “They are not handing anyone a job. I’m not asking for that. But to say that he’s been treated fairly here, it’s ridiculous.

“If you want to say I’m making excuses, that’s your opinion, then you are wrong…I don’t know who in the building doesn’t believe in him, but someone doesn’t, and I still don’t know why we drafted him if this is the way you were going to treat this kid.”

Watson finished his first game after 2024, completing 11 of 15 passes for 126 yards. The veteran lost a fumble as he started the first half, and then Sanders took over in the second. The second-year QB completed six of 11 passes for 79 yards and threw an interception in the 34-10 loss against the Chicago Bears.

With the QB competition ongoing, head coach Todd Monken will stick to the same rotation this week. Sanders takes first-team reps on Monday and Wednesday, while Watson leads the group on Tuesday.

The issue with these practices is that Sanders’ practices are shorter, while Watson gets a longer session in full pads. These subtle hints from the franchise on how they’re handling the battle are exactly what Rizzo is talking about.

Rizzo argued that Sanders has not been given an equitable opportunity in the current competition. Still, the claim that Cleveland neglected him last season is difficult to sustain: the fifth-round, 144th-overall pick made seven starts as a rookie and went 3-4 in those games.

During the 2025 offseason, Sanders did not even get a chance to practice with the first team and was seen throwing to the equipment guys, as former head coach Kevin Stefanski went hard on developing QB Dillon Gabriel. But when the season went downhill and Sanders got to start, he finished on top with a 3-4 record.

So logically, when the new season started, it was expected the Browns would give Sanders a chance, at least to show his potential as a starter. But as soon as they got another option in Watson, the Colorado product got sidelined.

Honestly, Watson does make sense. He has more experience than Sanders and is in the final year of his legendary $230 million contract. While there were reports that the Browns were starting Watson simply because of his massive contract, general manager Andrew Berry shut that down.

“It doesn’t matter what they are paid when they’re on the field. What we want are wins and performance and production…It’s a performance-based decision,” Berry said on the Deebo & Joe podcast. “The contract does not matter.”

For Rizzo and many fans, the real question is whether Sanders is being judged purely on performance or if other factors are at play. That being said, Sanders will start the second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills at Huntington Bank Field on Saturday.