Much of what unfolds on game days should be taken with a grain of salt as teams hold back the "good stuff" from their playbooks and rest their starters. At the same time, some of the offseason's most important decisions come down to these games. Such is the case in Cleveland, where the Browns might have settled their quarterback competition after a preseason Week 2 eyesore from Deshaun Watson and a solid showing from Shedeur Sanders.
Sanders may be the biggest winner from the second set of preseason games. De'Zhaun Stribling could be on his way to a stellar rookie season with the 49ers if Thursday's display of receiving prowess was any indication. And the Jets' defense actually looks… competitive?
Not all of those takeaways are guaranteed to play out come the regular season. Some of what unfolded in the second week of the preseason will go down as mere exhibition fallout rather than meaningful data. Let's separate overreactions from reality.
The plan was always for Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders to get one start apiece to open the preseason. Now that Todd Monken has the data points he set out to acquire, a decision on which of the two will open the regular season atop the depth chart is imminent. In fact, it could come as soon as Monday.
And after Watson's disastrous showing on Saturday, it is hard to picture the veteran winning the job. It is not as if Sanders went out and won the job himself. He threw an interception in each of his first two preseason outings and was underwhelming in Week 1, albeit with a decent bounce-back effort (9-for-11, 74 yards, one touchdown, one interception) in Week 2.
The potential pecking order in Cleveland is more a product of Watson looking unplayable on Saturday. While Watson outplayed Sanders a week ago, he floundered in his most recent appearance with poorly placed throws and a 5-for-12, 35-yard stat line with an interception. Browns fans booed him off the field, and while Monken said Watson's postgame comments toward the Cleveland faithful will not impact the starting quarterback decision, they were a poor look.
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