Shedeur Sanders spent part of his weekend running a youth football camp and part of it making sure nobody in Cleveland panics about the quarterback room. The rookie and Deshaun Watson are headed for a training-camp competition that will decide who takes the first snap in 2025, and Sanders wants it understood that the two men are not circling each other in a parking lot.
“I would say it’s the same thing that we’ve been saying from Day 1,” Sanders said, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “We’re both trying to be the best version of ourselves we could be. So we’re not going to let anything get in between of that. So it’s a level of respect that we all in the quarterback room have for each other.”
Before camp opens, Sanders and Watson organized workouts in South Florida with a chunk of Cleveland’s offensive skill group. Cabot reported that receivers Jerry Jeudy, Isaiah Bond, Cedric Tillman, KC Concepcion, and Denzel Boston were among those who made the trip to Miami. Sanders called the sessions a chance to build something that facility walls don’t quite allow.
“I think it was extremely important that us as a group, for whoever was available, was available to come down to Miami,” Sanders said. “And there were a couple other players that schedules didn’t align with it, but it’s all good for those that came and stuff. It was truly amazing. And we felt a different type of bond just outside of the facility, outside of these things.”
He described the dynamic between himself and Watson as practical rather than tense — a couple of quarterbacks picking each other’s brains rather than guarding secrets. “If I like something he’s doing, I ask. If he likes something I do, then [he] asks,” Sanders said. “It’s conversation, and that’s what’s most effective.”
For a franchise that has cycled through starting quarterbacks like a diner cycles through coffee pots, a calm quarterback room is not nothing. Watson is working back from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered last season, and Sanders — a fifth-round pick in April’s draft — has generated more attention than most late-round rookies ever see. The Browns also added Dillon Gabriel and Joe Flacco to the mix this offseason, making the position the most scrutinized in the league this summer.
Sanders leaned into the team-building angle when discussing the Miami trip, framing it as the kind of thing that pays off in November, not just in July. “You create these real memories, these real bonds, and it’s irreplaceable,” he said. “So I’m truly thankful that it happened. I know everybody that came was excited and we had a great time.”
Browns rookies report to training camp in Northeast Ohio on July 23. Veterans follow on July 28. That’s when the conversation Sanders keeps describing turns into a depth chart.
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