On Monday, Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken announced that Deshaun Watson had won the starting quarterback competition over Shedeur Sanders. The move will see the Browns hand the reins to the veteran Watson, who has been at the center of controversy since his Browns tenure began, instead of the promising but inexperienced Sanders.

Now, Watson’s former teammate JJ Watt has weighed in on the Browns’ decision.

“If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t see the entire press conference, so I can’t too in-depth about it. I know they’re in a quarterback competition up there right now… it’s a lot of money and we’ll see how he does,” said Watt, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 on X, formerly Twitter.

Indeed, the Browns have a lot more money tied to Watson than Sanders, which many thought could influence the decision.

Watt and Watson played together for multiple seasons as members of the Houston Texans, finding a decent amount of success back when Watson was one of the most promising young star quarterbacks in the league.

However, since then, Watson’s career has taken a turn for the worse, with dozens of accusations of sexual assault severely harming his reputation and leading to a suspension from the NFL, and a sharp decline in play on the field coinciding with those events.

Watson missed the entirety of the 2025 NFL season as he recovered from an Achilles tear the previous year, and now he will look to rekindle some of the magic of his early days in Houston on a Browns team that is widely expected to be among the worst in the league this year.

Meanwhile, Sanders will have to wait at least a little longer before getting another shot to prove himself as a starter at the NFL level.