Lil Wayne wants the Cleveland Browns to have a quarterback headache, just not the kind that comes from another loss. The five-time Grammy winner would rather see the franchise wrestling with a difficult decision about Shedeur Sanders than reach the end of the season without knowing what Sanders can offer.
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Speaking on Gridiron, co-hosted by Skip Bayless and Aqib Talib, during a conversation previewing the Packers-Cowboys matchup, Bayless asked Lil Wayne whether he wanted Sanders playing somewhere other than Cleveland.
“I need him to get his opportunity, and I think where he at he’s going to get that opportunity,” Wayne said on the show.
That distinction matters because Sanders is not currently Cleveland’s starter. The Browns’ official depth chart lists Deshaun Watson first and Sanders second, and the team has continued with Watson despite the attention surrounding him. Cleveland’s decision to start Watson was made after evaluating the offseason, training camp, and preseason, rather than treating the competition as a week-to-week contest.
Head coach Todd Monken explained the decision in August, saying:
“We felt over the course of training camp and the offseason that (Watson) was ahead of Shedeur,” Monken said. “Shedeur’s closed that gap, for sure. And that’s a credit to him. We look forward to Shedeur continuing to grow as a player, but ultimately, we’re about Week 1. Putting our best foot forward over the next three weeks.”
“Ultimately we expect him to play well or we wouldn’t be starting him,” he said.
Cleveland entered Week 6 with a 3-2 record after losing 17-12 to the New York Jets on October 11. Watson threw for 155 yards and was sacked eight times in that defeat, while a botched punt snap also hurt the Browns late in the game. The loss does not, by itself, mean Sanders should take over, but it gives the team another performance to evaluate as it weighs what it needs from its offense.
Watson has given Cleveland reasons to stick with him, but the numbers have hardly made the decision foolproof. Through five games, he has thrown for 1,010 yards and seven touchdowns with two interceptions, helping the Browns win three times. Then came the Jets game: just 155 passing yards, eight sacks, and a 17-12 loss.
Wayne, however, was not calling for Watson to be benched or suggesting Sanders had already earned the starting job. In fact, he made a point of saying he was happy to see Watson playing well earlier in the season.
“But I love to see Deshaun doing his thing now. I love that. I want Deshaun to give them a problem. I want them to actually have a problem at the end of this season, like, ‘Man, what the hell do we do? What do we do? Why did we do this?’ Well, I want them to, man. I want him. I like to see them smile.”
Sanders has also been trying to make himself understood beyond the quarterback debate. In an interview with Cosmopolitan published October 8, he spoke about how he believes the public sees him.
“I wish people understood me more as a human being,” he says. “I don’t think a lot of people really know me. I’m just now starting to understand that. You hear a lot of things online, but every encounter I have in person, people end up saying, ‘Oh, wow, he’s actually a great guy.’ Why would you think I’m a bad guy?”
The Browns may have their wins, but Wayne wants something far more entertaining: a quarterback dilemma Cleveland cannot simply shrug off. If Watson keeps the job, fine. But Wayne wants Sanders to make the decision uncomfortable, and that is where the fun begins.