Joe Thomas: Deshaun Watson Has a Leg Up on Shedeur in Browns’ QB Competition

Joe Thomas has a front-row seat to the Browns quarterback race, calling their preseason TV alongside Chris Rose while Andrew Siciliano, in for Rich and the Browns' radio play-by-play voice, ran the show. Thomas's read is that Deshaun Watson holds the edge over Shedeur Sanders for now.

Asked who starts more games this season, Thomas leaned Watson. Coming out of the offseason, Watson looks healthy off his Achilles tear, the arm still looks live, and the legs have come back. That mobility is the separator. Sanders isn't exceptional at using his legs to pick up a first down, Thomas said, though he's good at scrambling to extend plays and throw. Watson, in his view, gives the offense more versatility to open up and be dynamic.

Siciliano went the other way, and admitted neither he nor Todd Monken may actually know the answer. His reasoning: the defense will be good again, but over the last two years the offense scored only 16 points a game, and no defense is good enough to carry that. Eventually the Browns have to turn to their young core. But if Watson wins the job and plays well, you don't bench him just for the sake of youth. So it comes down to whether Watson can win it and how well he can actually play.

Thomas defended Monken's stated desire to name a clear starter by the end of minicamp. It's not about June drama, he explained, but about certainty: the receivers, tackles, and backs deserve to know who's under center and calling plays so they can stop fielding the same question every week and focus on their own jobs. The competition, he said, can still play out within that structure, with Sanders getting first-team reps and a real chance to win it over the first weeks of camp.

Thomas, ever the offensive lineman, couldn't resist a dig at the modern offseason. Both quarterbacks looked good at times in minicamp, but it's a glorified passing camp in shorts. Players these days, he noted, aren't even allowed to get close to each other. When he played, they wore the same pajamas but actually hit, and he'd have preferred shoulder pads since the contact was coming anyway.