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.
“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.
Watson’s future in Cleveland has been much of a question mark this offseason after he tore his Achilles again and underwent surgery in January.
Two months later, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam dubbed the $230 million Watson experiment a failure, stating at the NFL owners meetings how the club “took a big swing and miss” with the former Texans quarterback.
The Browns originally traded for Watson in March 2022 and subsequently signed him to a five-year, $230 million guaranteed contract.
He was suspended for the first 11 games of his inaugural season in Cleveland in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations made by massage therapists and was fined $5 million.
Watson only appeared in 13 regular-season games across the 2023 and 2024 seasons due to injury.
With Watson’s availability in question for the upcoming season, the Browns landed Eagles backup quarterback Kenny Pickett in a March trade, before signing Flacco in April.
The team drafted Gabriel in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft before adding Sanders in the fifth following a three-day slide.
Cleveland opens the season at home against the Bengals on Sept. 7.
