On August 22, Shedeur Sanders had just finished making his case against Buffalo, yet again. Nine completions on 11 attempts. A touchdown. One interception. But the memorable moment of the day didn’t involve Sanders or any of his throws. It came when Deshaun Watson entered the game, and the sound from Huntington Bank Field changed. 

The Browns crowd booed its own quarterback. This was Watson’s first home appearance since the 2024 game in which he tore his Achilles, when some Browns fans had cheered his injury. For Sanders, the moment could have been useful. He was competing with Watson for the same job. Instead, he defended him, making it clear that whatever happened on the depth chart, he wasn’t going to celebrate a teammate being torn apart by the crowd. Now, that depth chart has an answer. And from Sanders’ camp, the response was just as telling.

“Respect!!! 🦾 The competition is over. They’ve named our leader. Let’s ride with 4,” Knight, who is the head of operations and president of Young Money APAA Sports & Entertainment, wrote on X.

The message was notable because Knight had spent much of the competition arguing for the other side.

Before the decision, he had written that “everything in me knows that 2 at QB1 gives this team the best chance to win,” with “2” referring to Sanders and “4” to Watson.

Since Sanders joined the Browns, Boog, who remains active on social media, has been called out for sharing things that favor the second-year quarterback. However, the social media manager has always denied being Sanders’ voice.

“I never said I was 2’s voice. There’s thousands of people here speaking on 2. And 2 not the only person or thing I speak on. I’m a man first. I represent ME. His views aren’t mine, and mine aren’t his. Anyone who can’t figure that out, that’s on them,” Boog wrote in 2025. That distinction matters here.

Knight’s post did not mean he had suddenly picked Watson over Sanders. It was an acceptance of the Browns’ decision after publicly backing Sanders during the battle. Still, it will be Watson who starts the regular-season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and this is more than a one-game trial:

Head coach Todd Monken said the Browns do not view the decision as week-to-week. Neither Watson nor Sanders will play in Cleveland’s preseason finale against the New England Patriots, either.

Monken’s reasoning also went beyond what happened Saturday against Buffalo. He said Cleveland evaluated the “whole body of work” from the offseason program through training camp, the joint practice with Buffalo and both preseason games. With the season opening on the road, he felt Watson gave Cleveland the better chance to move the ball and score, specifically pointing to operating the offense and handling a silent cadence.

Furthermore, Watson later apologized for the way he addressed the fans, saying his emotions had gotten the better of him and that he understood their frustration. Monken made clear that Watson’s comments about the crowd did not factor into the quarterback decision.

During the QB competition, both Sanders and Watson were given opportunities to battle and show their skills to claim the number one spot. For that, both quarterbacks started one preseason game each.

Watson started the first game against the Chicago Bears and completed 11 of 15 passes for 126 yards without a touchdown or interception. Sanders completed six of 11 passes for 79 yards and threw one interception in that game.

However, it was the second preseason game against the Bills when Watson was booed. Sanders started the game and completed 9 of 11 passes for 74 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Meanwhile, Watson finished with just 5 of 12 passes for 36 yards and threw an interception.

Taken together, Sanders actually finished the preseason with the better passing line through two games: 15-of-22 for 153 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, compared with Watson’s 16-of-27 for 162 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. That makes the Browns’ decision harder to explain through the box score alone, and more revealing of what Monken valued beyond it.

For Watson, the decision also marks a significant point in a Cleveland tenure that has rarely gone according to plan. The Browns traded three first-round picks, along with a third- and fourth-round pick, to acquire him from the Houston Texans in 2022 and then gave him a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract. He was suspended for the first 11 games of that season, missed the end of 2023 with a shoulder injury, played only seven games in 2024 before tearing his Achilles and then missed all of 2025 after a second Achilles surgery. That history is why this is not simply a case of a veteran winning a preseason competition.

Watson has made only 19 starts for Cleveland since the trade and is now entering his fifth season with the Browns. The Jacksonville game will be only his third Week 1 start for the team; he missed the 2022 opener because of his suspension and the 2025 opener because of his injury.

And Cleveland will not immediately throw him back into the same environment that greeted him Saturday. The Browns open with road games against Jacksonville and Tampa Bay before returning home in Week 3 to face Carolina.

For Sanders, meanwhile, this is a setback in the competition, not necessarily a verdict on his future. Monken praised his progress while making clear that the decision was about who was best prepared to operate the offense at the start of the season. “I think Shedeur has done a great job, come a long ways, and we’re excited about his future,” Monken said.

That leaves Sanders in an unusual spot. He lost the job to a quarterback who has barely been on the field for two years, yet the Browns still appear to view him as a developing part of their plans. For now, Watson gets the first snap. Sanders gets to watch what happens next.