Deshaun Watson will start the preseason opener at quarterback when the Cleveland Browns visit the Chicago Bears on Saturday.
First-year Browns coach Todd Monken told reporters Wednesday that Watson will play the first half against the Bears. Shedeur Sanders will start the second half.
In the second preseason game on Aug. 22, Sanders will start against the visiting Buffalo Bills and play the first half. Watson will start the second half of that game.
“I’m super excited,” the injury plagued Watson said. “All the hard work that I put in with the training staff, with my team, my personal team, to get to this stage has been tremendous for me. So, I’m super excited for those opportunities and can’t wait for it.”
Monken said he wants both quarterbacks to get an opportunity to handle a two-minute situation.
“I have my reasons for how it’s going to go, and it’s still a competition,” Monken said. “We’re excited to watch guys practice (Wednesday), let alone (play) on Saturday, and then next week against Buffalo, and we’ll get a chance to see them both. Every week we’ll assess it.
“It’ll be a little bit more difficult with the player that doesn’t play as much this week or the other quarterbacks, right? We’ll be able to assess the quarterback that started and how he played and when the other quarterbacks came in and then the opposite will be next week against Buffalo.”
Watson, who turns 31 next month, was traded from the Houston Texans to the Browns prior to the 2022 season. Cleveland subsequently awarded him a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million deal.
He ruptured his right Achilles tendon in Week 7 of the 2024 season and later re-tore it three months later and had a second surgery which knocked him out of the 2025 season. He also had his career derailed by an 11-game suspension in 2022 tied for sexual misconduct allegations involving more than two dozen massage therapists.
In 19 games with Cleveland, he has a 9-10 record and has thrown 19 touchdowns and been intercepted 12 times.
Earlier in his career, Watson was a Pro Bowl selection three straight seasons (2018-20) for the Texans. He passed for career highs of 4,823 yards and 33 touchdowns in 2020.
Now he’s trying to revive his once-promising career.
“I’ve seen a lot of really good things over the course of the four or five months I’ve been here,” Monken said of Watson. “I think he’s done a lot of really good things athletically, making plays that we’re going to get a chance to see, because we’re not live. We’ll see if that comes to play when we get out there and go.”
Sanders, 24, was a fifth-round draft pick last season and went 3-4 as a starter while playing eight games. He passed for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns against 10 interceptions and was named to the Pro Bowl after other quarterbacks withdrew.