Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders are still going neck-and-neck in the QB1 battle in Cleveland. And as it stands, the popular narrative still says Watson is a lock for the starting job. However, 92.3’s Nick Wilson disagreed.

“I understand that you might want to leverage Deshaun to make sure that Shedeur is on point in this quarterback every single way,” Wilson said. “I get it. But the ‘Kool-Aid drinking’ on Deshaun Watson in this town is absolutely insane.  It’s not the fans, guys. I’ve got to call my media brethren out on this.  It is insane.

“God, let’s just say the truth here: Shedeur has looked like the better quarterback. Whether he looked great or not, he has looked like the better quarterback in 80% of the practices that we’ve all been able to see. … We don’t all have to just say whatever the Browns want us to say. But that’s what’s happening. We have free will.  We’ve got the ability to say what we actually think instead of what somebody over there wants us to say and think.”

It has long been presumed that Deshaun Watson will win the starting job in Week 1. He has come back healthy and gained on a Year 2 Shedeur Sanders earlier in the offseason practices. However, the red flags did not magically vanish. Right before training camp began, Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot pointed out that Deshaun’s throwing arm seemed to “tail off” in practice.

And when training camp began, Watson’s comeback became tougher. He has struggled immensely against the defense, with his most notable showing coming on Wednesday. He threw for seven touchdowns that day. But the defense locked back in the next day, picking him off twice.

In the nine practices so far, Watson has been intercepted eight times.

In the last two practices, Sanders has indeed looked like the better quarterback. He didn’t score in the last practice, but was more accurate than Watson, who was 13-of-23. The day before, Sanders and Watson both went 11-of-16, but the former scored a touchdown and recorded an interception. Watson went scoreless this time, while also being intercepted once.

Head coach Todd Monken has said the Browns will rotate quarterbacks and “play the best player,” but the team has also defended Watson when he struggled. While talking about one of his interceptions, Monken called the throw “elite” and credited Denzel Ward for making a great play. On another, he blamed offensive-line “leakage” that forced Watson to delay his throw, per insider Daniel Oyefusi.

Cleveland will be getting some returns on the $230 million they invested in Deshaun Watson by having him start this season. But this is someone who hasn’t ever played a full season since he began his Browns tenure. And somehow, Watson seems optimistic about an extended future with Cleveland.

Team owner Jimmy Haslam hasn’t shut the doors on that idea either.

“I think there are all kinds of possibilities out there – so, yes,” Haslam said when asked about an extension for Watson. Last year, he called the quarterback a “big swing and a miss” for Cleveland.

Like Wilson, some in the media are buying that narrative from Cleveland.

Even though Haslam had called out publications for projecting a 5-12 record for the team this year, USA Today doubled down and predicted the same number once again. The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd wrote that the owner is “trying feverishly to thread a delicate needle” this year, and now has “improved expectations from the team.”

Only time will decide which narrative stands true.