The Cleveland Browns are heading into a huge Week 4 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday with a chance to improve to 3-1 on the young season. It’s a far better outcome than even the most optimistic Browns fans expected at this point of the year, but this team has looked much-improved thanks largely to an offense that has taken some steps forward over the past couple of weeks.
Watson starting 0-2 and getting benched for good ahead of the Week 3 home opener was the outcome many were expecting, but he started and won the Week 3 matchup over the Carolina Panthers and is showing true progress each week. The question now is where Shedeur Sanders fits into the equation at all and what the overall plan is for the young QB.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler stopped by The Really Big Show to discuss the situation. He believes there is a world where he gets traded somewhere to a team in dire need of a QB after an injury, but for now, he doesn’t see anything on the horizon.
“If there’s another major injury somewhere and a team had a good file on Shedeur, does somebody take a shot on him? Maybe. I think it would have to be a situation where they would be comfortable with Gabriel as their No. 2. If that’s solidified for them, then maybe they would try to shop Shedeur. Right now, I don’t sense any movement. I think they’re comfortable where they’re at,” Fowler said.
"Does somebody take a shot on him? Maybe. I think it would have to be a situation where they would be comfortable with Gabriel as their no. 2. If that's solidified for them, then maybe they would try and shop Shedeur," – @JFowlerESPN on if the Browns could trade Shedeur. https://t.co/XSwiZXWF2q pic.twitter.com/bGXVWz5Qp7
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) October 1, 2026
Dillon Gabriel is projected to be coming off IR soon, and when he does, that could be when the Browns ultimately decide to make a move. There won’t be room for him with Watson, rookie Taylen Green, and Sanders on the roster, so logically someone will have to go unless there is another injury.
He’ll have fierce competition from Patrick Mahomes, but Watson is putting himself in the early mix for the Comeback Player of the Year award. Unless his performance falls off a cliff once again, there unfortunately isn’t a path for Sanders to get playing time, and with the 2027 draft looming after this season, he may never get the chance again in Cleveland.
The unfortunate reality is that his best chance at establishing himself in this league may have to come somewhere else, and at least until Gabriel comes back and proves he is healthy, he is stuck in his current role. Hopefully he is learning everything he can in the meantime because it was clear down the stretch in 2025 that he still had things to work on.
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