Good News Browns Fans – Reports Say Deshaun Watson is Taking Shedeur Sanders Under His Wing
NY Post – Nowadays, whenever people discuss what it is that's going to take over the world and kill us all, it's always AI.
Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson is taking on an additional role this offseason as he recovers from a re-aggravated Achilles injury: mentoring QBs.
Watson, expected to miss much, if not all, of the 2025 season, is said to be a source of support to the four quarterbacks vying for the starting job, including Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, whom the former first-round pick has taken “under his wing,” according to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.
Love to see it. I can only imagine what a bear it must be to come into your first NFL off-season as a rookie quarterback. Especially in a situation like Shedeur Sanders. Less than a year ago, it seemed like Shedeur was almost the consensus #1 pick. As it turned out, Shedeur Sanders early high evaluations as a prospect were all a part of an ESPN long con in order to build hype around the Sanders family and set up an intriguing national storyline that would boost TV ratings for Day 2 & Day 3 of the NFL Draft. They even fooled Mel Kiper Jr., who was so distraught by Shedeur's fall to the 5th round that he has since fled to Bolivia to live out his remaining days with the indigenous Chiquitano people in the tropical savanna of Santa Cruz.
Shedeur Sanders, however, is still in the thick of it. He's doing everything he can to prove his many, many, many, many, many haters wrong and earn the Cleveland Browns' starting job. But it's going to be a hell of an uphill battle. He's currently in a five-man deep off-season QB competition with the likes of fan favorite Joe Flacco, 3rd round draft pick Dillon Gabriel, guy Kenny Pickett, and 5-year, $230M, 24x sex crime accusee Deshaun Watson. Shedeur must feel like he's on an island out there. But not a beautiful all-inclusive island with 5-star amenities and unsuspecting masseuses. Like the island from Lost where you can't walk 100-steps without someone or something new trying to tear you down.
But thank God Shedeur Sanders has found a friend. Someone who's been in deep in the NFL trenches both on the field and off. Not only does Deshan Watson have bountiful experience when it comes to playing the game of football while undergoing an onslaught of media scrutiny, but he's also extremely well-versed in being an underperforming dog shit quarterback. Ok sorry that last one was unfair. Not to Deshaun Watson. He was a truly fucking horrific football player last year. But Shedeur Sanders has never been bad at football. His pro-potential may have been vastly overblown. Jury is still out on that. But he had a couple damn good seasons at Colorado. The guy threw for 4,000+ yards and 37 TD's his senior year. On top of that, he's one of only four football players in Colorado Buffaloes history to have his number retired. And Colorado has won a national championship before. They don't just give those honors to anyone.
Jokes aside, I'm sure there's a world where Deshaun Watson would have advice that Shedeur Sanders could benefit from. There was a point in Deshaun's NFL career where he did good things on the field. He can probably tell you all the right reporters to avoid like the plague. But speaking of reporters, the verbiage used in this story was dirty work from Cleveland.com's Mary Cay Cabot. "Under his wing". She knows exactly what she's doing with that. When you actually read the story, all it sounds like is that Deshaun Watson has been a supportive teammate to his fellow quarterbacks.
“Watson has been an awesome teammate inside the quarterback room and meeting rooms, and has been a great cheerleader for the four quarterbacks vying for the starting job,”
Cabot reported Sunday, citing sources.
“… He’s been especially helpful to the rookies in Gabriel and Sanders, who are working overtime to remain in the starting mix.”
In the case of Sanders, the 23-year-old son of NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, Watson, 29, is said to be aiding the former Buffaloes quarterback “come up the learning curve quickly, and it’s been working,” Cabot reported.
Deion, 57, vocally supported Watson in October 2024 in the wake of his initial Achilles injury, which drew some cheers from the Cleveland faithful. Watson “is only too happy to repay the favor” to Deion by mentoring his son, per the report.
I mean, that just seems like literally any football locker room featuring quarterbacks who don't actively hate each other. For $230M in guaranteed money, the least Deshaun Watson could do is his job. Saying Deshaun Watson has taken Shedeur, "under his wing" is funny. You know the Sanders family let out a collective under their breath "God damn it…" when they saw that headline. But maybe it's a perfectly accurate description. I wouldn't know. I'm not covering the Browns from the inside. But I do know that a story about Joe Flacco taking Shedeur Sanders under his wing doesn't get nearly as many eyeballs. As much as Browns fans, and probably Shedeur Sanders himself would prefer it.