Rich Breaks Down the Latest Intrigue Surrounding the Browns’ QB Competition

One quarterback competition is settled in Minnesota. Another is pending in Atlanta. And then there's Cleveland, which is not settled in the slightest.

Both of the men involved spoke, and the contrast is the whole story.

Shedeur Sanders was asked about ping-ponging between the ones and the twos, which is the kind of question designed to produce a complaint. It did not work. "I think that doesn't even phase me or get to me or I think about that at all," Sanders said. "I'm just thankful to be out able to practice. Sometimes you got to sit back and reflect on why would I feel negative in this situation if last year was a total different situation. If you live in that want world, then you going to always be searching."

Rich's take is that this is a skill. With the exception of that strange moment where Sanders was caught mouthing words, the son of Prime does not take bait, ever. Everybody is waiting for the smallest twitch in the direction of entitlement, the slightest hint of did you not see what I did last year, and he refuses to give anyone that daylight.

Which is not the same as it being how he feels. Every quarterback wants to be with the ones. Every quarterback wants to be QB1. If you play the position at any level, you're a control freak and a competition freak by definition, and Sanders may have to keep voicing his willingness to go with the flow for a long time because of the way he got drafted.

Deshaun Watson, asked the same thing, answered like a man who does not have to audition for anything. It's helpful to practice with the same guys, he said, because you build trust, and everyone has different tendencies and different ways of running routes and different catch radiuses. "It's obviously hard going back and forth with different guys, but you just try to learn as much as possible."

That, Rich noted, sounds like a veteran. It also sounds like someone who knows exactly why he's in this situation.

The money argues for Watson getting the last shot. A quarter of a billion dollars has been invested and guaranteed, and the contract is nearly through. As Albert Breer laid out on the show a day earlier, the nightmare scenario for Cleveland is watching Watson leave and look like the Watson of his first four years somewhere else.

That player, Rich remembers vividly. The guy under Bill O'Brien in Houston who got kicked in the eye during a play against the Raiders and still completed a pass for a touchdown. The rookie who wasn't even supposed to start, because O'Brien went with Tom Savage until the middle of that first game, and then got thrown onto Thursday night football days later behind an offensive line so ravaged the Texans were stacking tight ends just to protect him. It was a rough night throwing. He still ran one in from midfield and Houston won in overtime.

Rich was in the building in Cincinnati that night. He hasn't forgotten it.

He also remembers the draft, sitting on the set in Philadelphia when Kansas City traded up. He turned to Mike Mayock and asked if this was Watson. Mayock gave him a look that said no. It was Patrick Mahomes. The Saints traded up next and took a defensive lineman. Then the Texans got Watson.

The Browns are hoping that guy still exists. Unless Sanders massively outperforms him over these next few weeks, Rich thinks Cleveland finds out.