Shedeur Sanders Apologizes to Media as Browns QB Battle With Deshaun Watson Heats Up
Shedeur Sanders is doing damage control in Cleveland, and it’s not on the field. The Browns quarterback used his Wednesday press conference to apologize for how he handled his last media session two weeks ago.
Sanders had given reporters nothing but short, dismissive answers in that previous appearance. It got noticed. It got reported. And it turned into another storyline in a season that is already piling up storylines around the second-year quarterback.
“I want to apologize for how things went the last time I came up here. I dislike when there’s a lot of separation and when something gets between the team and people get painted a certain way,” Sanders said. “That’s where I get frustrated and shut down. Just doesn’t help us win.”
Credit where it’s due, that’s a mature response from a 24-year-old quarterback fighting for his job. Sanders knows the media coverage is going to shape how his teammates, his coaches, and Browns fans view him. He’s smart enough now to not add fuel to the fire.
The context matters, though. Sanders is battling Deshaun Watson for the QB1 job in Cleveland, and Watson was named the starter for the team’s preseason opener against the Bears this Saturday. Sanders will get the start in Week 2 of the preseason against the Buffalo Bills on August 22.
That order of operations tells you where the Browns coaching staff currently stands. Watson, whose contract still runs through this decade, is getting the first crack at proving he can be the guy. Sanders is getting the second look.
The rookie numbers for Sanders last year weren’t good enough to just hand him the job. He threw for 1,400 yards with 7 touchdowns and 10 interceptions across 8 games. Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel also started games for Cleveland in what became a full-blown quarterback disaster of a season.
Watson missed all of 2025 recovering from his second Achilles surgery. Everyone knows the Browns want the Watson contract to work out because the alternative is admitting one of the worst trades in league history. But the football on the field has to justify the decision, and Watson hasn’t played a meaningful snap since October 2024.
Sanders should have played every snap for the Browns last year as a rookie. Instead, the team turned it into a rotating QB carousel and now here we are in August with the same battle unresolved.
The apology from Sanders was smart. He’s trying to reset his relationship with the media and with his teammates. He needs both if he’s going to eventually take this job over from Watson.
The Browns face the Bears on Saturday, and it will be worth watching how many series each quarterback gets. If Watson gets a full first half and Sanders gets the third quarter with backups, we’ll know exactly where the depth chart is trending.
The QB battle in Cleveland is far from over. But Sanders just made the first move to make sure the noise around him doesn’t cost him a fair shot.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
