Myles Garrett Trade to Rams: Grading the Browns Deal
06/05/2026
No Comments
Myles Garrett trade to the Rams Breakdown
Updated June 3, 2026
The most clicked-on name at the Cleveland Browns OTAs this spring is also the one running with the second team. That is Shedeur Sanders, the biggest Browns story heading into 2026: a fifth-round pick who led all NFL rookies in jersey sales last year, sharing a quarterback room with a former franchise centerpiece in Deshaun Watson, and the QB1 spot is still up for grabs. We have been waiting all offseason to see how the Cleveland Browns QB battle would shake out, and the early Berea reports are finally giving us something to digest. As of now, it is a real competition with real fantasy stakes, and the way it breaks could swing a starting NFL quarterback job in superflex and dynasty leagues. Here is where things actually stand.
Cleveland goes into the summer with Watson, Sanders, Dillon Gabriel and rookie Taylen Green as the four arms in the building, with the unofficial order reading Watson, Sanders, Gabriel, then Green. Sanders finished last season as the team’s starter once Cleveland turned the page on the Gabriel experiment, so this is not a kid who has never seen the field. He is a second-year player fighting to win the job back outright.
The Browns traded up to take Sanders at No. 144 overall in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, a stunning slide for a quarterback who spent the entire pre-draft cycle attached to early Round 1 projections. He recently changed his identity with the move, switching from No. 12 to No. 2 for Year 2, the digits he wore at Colorado. The hype was always going to follow him. The reps are what he has to earn.
The honest answer in late May: it is leaning Watson, but it is far from over. A Browns beat reporting out of voluntary minicamp had Watson emerging with the inside track to be named QB1. For a player who tore his Achilles in the 2024 season and re-tore it months later and did not play in 2025, just being first in line again shows how bad the Browns QB room truly is.
But the coaching staff is not closing the door. Browns offensive coordinator Travis Switzer pumped the brakes during OTAs, telling reporters “I don’t know that we have somebody who’s ahead” and saying the staff is pleased with both quarterbacks’ progress. The two tweets below, from reporters who were actually in Berea, capture how fluid the alignment has been from one practice to the next.
One day the rookie is taking install reps with the first-team line and receivers; the next, the veteran is back out front in individual drills. That is not indecision so much as a genuinely open audition. Head coach Todd Monken has said he wants a starter named before training camp, so this gets settled in weeks, not months. That also means he probably is leaning in one direction or knows who it will be and just wants to add pressure to his chosen one.
On the plus side, the path to snaps is unusually short. There is no entrenched, healthy franchise quarterback locked into a decade-long deal blocking the room; the competition is genuinely open, and Sanders already has starting experience banked from his rookie year, when he threw for 1,400 yards with 7 touchdowns and 10 interceptions after taking over late.
The drawbacks are just as real, and they are about the situation, not the player. Watson’s contract and pedigree mean the organization has every incentive to give him the first chance this season. The offensive line was a problem last season, the receiver room is unproven, and a rebuilding Browns offense is a tough place for any young quarterback to post fantasy-relevant numbers right away. Add in a head-coaching change, with Todd Monken now running the offense after a staff overhaul, and the playbook is a moving target as well. A sophomore quarterback learning a brand-new scheme on the fly is fighting two battles at once: the one on the depth chart and the one in the meeting room. That is the part of this competition that does not show up in a single OTA practice report, and it is the part that should temper anyone expecting a clean, linear climb to impressive fantasy outputs.
This is a situation to monitor every week between now and the June minicamp. The value math is simple: a quarterback who wins a Week 1 starting job is a different dynasty asset than one who opens the year holding a clipboard. If Sanders takes the job, he becomes a streaming-and-stash superflex name overnight; if Watson holds it, Sanders slides back into the wait-your-turn tier.
Don’t just draft for this year. Gain the knowledge needed to position yourself to secure your future with SPS rookie data.
Myles Garrett trade to the Rams Breakdown
Vikings QB competition 2026: why Kyler Murray leads J.J. McCarthy at OTAs, and what the battle means for Jefferson, Addison and Jennings in fantasy.
Tyreek Hill injury 2026 update: Adam Schefter says the free agent WR may not return until midway through the season after his September knee surgery.