9 min read
Major Takeaways
- Cleveland placed Deshaun Watson in concussion protocol on Wednesday after symptoms surfaced Monday night, two days after a helmet to helmet hit in Pittsburgh.
- Shedeur Sanders took the first team repetitions in practice Wednesday and is in line for his first start of the season Sunday at New Orleans.
- Watson has led the Browns to a surprise 5 and 3 start, and he has engineered a winning drive in the fourth quarter in all five victories.
- Sanders started the final seven games as a rookie last season and went 3 and 4, and a strong Sunday could reopen the quarterback debate in Cleveland.
- The Browns carry four quarterbacks on the roster, with Dillon Gabriel in line to back Sanders up and rookie Taylen Green behind him.
The Cleveland Browns spent three days believing their quarterback had escaped the hit.
On Wednesday morning, the timeline changed.
Cleveland placed Deshaun Watson in concussion protocol.
The move puts his status for Sunday in serious doubt.
It also puts Shedeur Sanders on the edge of his first start of the season.
Sanders took the first team repetitions when the Browns returned to practice Wednesday.
If Watson cannot clear the protocol in time, Sanders will lead a 5 and 3 team into New Orleans.
The game kicks off Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern at the Caesars Superdome.
For a player who has waited all season for one real chance, the moment is enormous.
1. The Hit in Pittsburgh and the Symptoms That Followed
The sequence began on the opening possession Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Watson took a helmet to helmet hit from Steelers safety Jaquan Brisker in the first quarter.
A spotter called down to the sideline during the game.
An unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant then administered a concussion evaluation.
Watson was cleared and returned on the next Cleveland series.
Sanders covered just four snaps while Watson was being checked.
Watson finished the game and threw for a season best 324 yards.
The punishment around him was relentless all afternoon.
Pittsburgh sacked him eight times and hit him 13 times in a 27 to 6 Cleveland loss.
Team medical staff evaluated Watson again after the game.
They evaluated him once more on Monday morning.
Both times he showed no symptoms and passed his evaluations.
Then the story shifted late on Monday.
Watson began experiencing concussion symptoms on Monday night.
He reported those symptoms to the medical staff on Tuesday morning.
The team said he was immediately placed in the concussion protocol.
Head coach Todd Monken never pulled Watson from the Pittsburgh game.
Monken said afterward that he never considered sitting his quarterback.
“Did not,” Monken said. “I want to see him play.”
“I want to see him continue to play and battle and he did.”
Watson now faces the five step return process the league requires.
The steps move from limited activity to full football activity and final clearance.
He must be cleared by the team physician and by an independent neurological consultant.
There is no official timetable for that process.
The median recovery for players in the protocol runs about nine days.
That math alone makes Sunday a long shot for Watson.
Cleveland has seen players clear the protocol within days this season.
Safety Grant Delpit, receiver KC Concepcion and tackle Tytus Howard all returned the following week.
Howard even played against Pittsburgh after missing practice until Saturday.
So the door is not fully closed on Watson.
It is simply a door Sanders is now preparing to walk through.
2. Watson Has Carried Cleveland Through a Surprise Start
Losing Watson, even for one week, is no small thing for Cleveland.
He had not played since 2024 before this fall.
He then won the starting job over Sanders during the preseason.
He has started all eight games since.
The Browns have ridden him to a 5 and 3 record that few predicted.
Watson has completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 1,806 yards.
He has thrown seven touchdowns against three interceptions.
His passer rating sits at 91.2.
The late game record is where his value really shows.
He has engineered a winning drive in the fourth quarter in all five Cleveland victories.
He has thrown for 300 yards in each of his last two games.
Those are his first 300 yard games in five years with the Browns.
The cost of that production has been heavy.
Watson has been sacked a league high 33 times this season.
That is ten more sacks than the next closest quarterback.
The Browns still trail Pittsburgh at 6 and 2 in the AFC North race.
Cincinnati sits at 5 and 2 as well.
With the margin that thin, every week at quarterback matters.
That is the pressure Sanders steps into on Sunday.
3. What Sanders Brings to His First Start of the Season
Sanders is not walking into this moment cold.
He started the final seven games of last season as a rookie.
He went 3 and 4 in that stretch.
He completed 56.6 percent of his passes for 1,400 yards.
He threw seven touchdowns and ten interceptions.
He also delivered three of the five Cleveland wins last season.
His first career start became a piece of team history.
On November 23, 2025, he threw for 209 yards in a 24 to 10 win at Las Vegas.
He was the first Cleveland quarterback to win his first career start since Eric Zeier in 1995.
He even reached the Pro Bowl as a replacement after the season.
This season has been a different kind of test.
Sanders lost a close preseason competition with Watson in August.
He has appeared in just two games since.
He played brief snaps against Carolina on September 27 and again in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
He has completed all three of his passes this season for two yards.
He stayed the second quarterback even after Dillon Gabriel returned from injured reserve.
That standing matters this week.
Gabriel is in line to serve as the backup on Sunday.
The Browns are one of the few teams carrying four quarterbacks on the active roster.
Rookie Taylen Green of Arkansas sits behind Gabriel and has yet to take a snap.
The matchup offers Sanders a real opening.
New Orleans enters at 2 and 5 on the season.
The Saints pass defense ranks among the bottom ten in the league.
A patient game plan could let Sanders settle in early.
A fast start could do much more than that.
It could reopen a quarterback conversation that Cleveland thought was settled in August.
4. A Path That Started at Jackson State
Black football fans have followed the Sanders story for years.
It started with a choice almost no top recruit would have made.
Sanders held offers from Alabama, LSU, Michigan and Florida State as a high school star.
He first committed to Florida Atlantic in the summer of 2020.
Then his father Deion Sanders took the head coaching job at Jackson State.
Shedeur flipped his commitment to the Tigers that November.
He chose an HBCU program and a SWAC stage over the usual power conference road.
The bet paid off right away.
As a true freshman in 2021, he set a school record by completing 65.9 percent of his passes.
He threw for 3,231 yards and 30 touchdowns.
Jackson State won its first SWAC championship since 2007.
Sanders won the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in the FCS.
He was the first HBCU player ever to receive that honor.
He threw for 3,752 yards and 40 touchdowns the next season.
His record across two seasons at Jackson State was 23 and 3.
He followed his father to Colorado for two more seasons.
He led the nation in completion percentage in 2024.
He won Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year that season.
Then came the famous slide through the 2025 draft.
A player once projected in the first round waited until the fifth round.
Cleveland traded up to take him with the 144th overall pick.
The Browns had already drafted Gabriel in the third round that same weekend.
That history is why Sunday carries weight far beyond one start.
Every start Sanders gets is another answer to the questions that followed him into the league.
His fans from Jackson to Boulder to Cleveland will be watching.
So will a front office that must decide what its future at quarterback looks like.
5. What Sunday in New Orleans Could Decide
The timing adds one more layer to the week.
The league trade deadline arrives Tuesday, November 10.
Sanders hired an agent earlier this season, and that move set off trade speculation.
Reports since then say Cleveland has no plans to move him before the deadline.
A start on Sunday gives the Browns fresh film either way.
It also gives Sanders the one thing backup quarterbacks rarely control.
It gives him the stage.
Watson could still clear the protocol and take the job back this week.
Cleveland will update his practice status as the week moves forward.
If he cannot go, the plan is already in motion.
Sanders is taking the first team work.
Gabriel is preparing as the backup.
The Browns are protecting a winning record in a tight division race.
Follow the rest of the week in our football coverage and across the full sports section, including the Monday night recap from Seattle.
Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, the waiting may finally end.
Shedeur Sanders has bet on himself at every stop of his career.
This weekend, Cleveland may bet on him too.
