The Cleveland Browns quarterback competition heading into 2026 is one of the most talked about storylines in the entire NFL right now. Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and the lingering shadow of Deshaun Watson have created a situation that everyone seems to have a strong opinion about. Now, a former Browns QB has weighed in, and he did not mince words about where he stands.
Robert Griffin III made his case on Yahoo Sports and spoke about what matters when choosing a starting quarterback.
“If I was in the decision-making chair, who should be my starter? When we start in OTAs and we go to our first mandatory minicamp, I’m starting Shedeur Sanders. What they did with him at quarterback was they won games. When you step into the huddle, do you believe that you have a chance to win with the guy that is in the huddle with you at quarterback? The Cleveland Browns’ locker room believes they can win with Shedeur Sanders. They don’t believe they can win with Deshaun Watson. They don’t believe that they can win with Dillon Gabriel,” Griffin said.
.@RGIII would start Shedeur Sanders over Deshaun Watson if he were Browns head coach ⌚
(via Yahoo Sports Daily) pic.twitter.com/UOs3qSWtFe
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) April 13, 2026
The belief inside a locker room is one of the most powerful forces in determining what a team is actually capable of accomplishing. You cannot manufacture it, you cannot install it through a depth chart decision, and you cannot fake it when things get hard during a long season.
Sanders walked into an impossible situation at the end of last season and did something nobody expected. He won. The Browns finished the year with back-to-back divisional victories under his leadership, and the people inside that building watched it happen firsthand. That matters.
Griffin knows what it means to be a young quarterback trying to earn the trust of a locker room full of veteran players who have seen it all before. He also knows what happens when that trust is absent.
Sanders is the only quarterback on that roster who has actually earned that belief from the people around him.
The Browns front office will ultimately make this call, and Todd Monken will have significant input into how the competition unfolds through OTAs and training camp. But Griffin III has put a clear and compelling argument on the table.
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