After Shedeur Sanders’ performance down the stretch of his rookie campaign in 2025, it was a common sentiment that he had done enough to earn himself the starting gig heading into Week 1 of 2026. Things have changed now that Deshaun Watson is healthy, and it’s now becoming unclear what the future holds for the young QB.
While he now has an uphill battle to reclaim the starting role, that doesn’t mean he has lost the support of the locker room or the organization. During a time when it sounds like people are starting to have doubts and the QB situation is a bit of a mess, it was great to hear a teammate speak up in support of Shedeur Sanders recently.
During a recent appearance on the Moment on Spotlight podcast, cornerback Tre Avery defended his young quarterback, and he claimed he has enjoyed watching him since his days at Colorado and knows he is that guy.
“I enjoy watching good quarterbacks. Before Shedeur was my teammate, I used to watch Colorado. That’s the only team I watched because I felt like they had the most exciting games. I already felt like Shedeur was who he is right now. I already felt like he was that guy at quarterback. When he got into the league, it definitely solidified his standing in practice,” Avery said.
💪🏾 . #Browns CB Tre Avery on teammate @ShedeurSanders
📸: moment on spotlight #dawgpound pic.twitter.com/PkG2gW15k7
— Change7he Narrative (@change7he68182) May 7, 2026
The tough reality regarding this situation is that a new coaching regime often means that a new quarterback comes with it. As for Sanders, it could certainly mean that the fans have more belief in him than the current regime does.
The tone shift regarding Watson has been a surprising development, but if the team has seen enough of Sanders to believe that he can’t be the franchise QB, it makes sense to go back to Watson.
The Browns can get out of his contract after this season, so playing him can either give him a chance to bounce back and finally give the team some ROI, or he can make himself trade bait. It’s entirely possible that the plan all along was to wait until 2027 to find the next franchise QB.
Andrew Berry has addressed just about every other area of the roster over the last two drafts, and in what should be a great QB class, it wouldn’t be shocking if the only priority in next year’s draft is finding the quarterback.
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