My personal thoughts on the QBs is that as bad as Watson is, he is still far and away the best QB we have. That said, we may let on that we feel Shedeur is winning the QB competition to drive up his outside perceived value.
I dislike Watson completely, never wanted him, was always against everything to do with him, but I would not be surprised in the least to see us trade Shedeur and roll with Watson.
I mean, in the end, I don't think we actually have a QB on the roster. Period. However, we have to roll with someone. Shedeur isn't a starting QB in this league unless he figures out how to fix a LOT of things with himself, so our best play with him is to turn the 5th rounder we spent on him into something better. Watson is here this year no matter what, and then likely gone. Unless he plays at a level he hasn't approached in nearly a decade, he's done here. IF he can somehow perform at his 2018-2020 level, he could get an extension (which would allow us to work some of the dead cap in what is currently set to be void years). Gabriel throws a LOT less INTs and has a marginally higher completion percentage, but he's a dink & dunker. Maybe that's on the OLine and the lack of WRs, maybe it was hyper-conservative playcalling, maybe it was him. Maybe it was all three. He was efficient and took care of the ball, though. Sanders gambled more, but threw a lot of up-for-grabs balls that shouldn't have ever been thrown. Some paid off, a lot did not. Gabriel had the higher YPA in college - by a full yard per attempt; that's a big difference. However, for some reason, he was 1.5 yards per attempt lower last year. I think it comes down to Gabriel had the sense to protect the ball where Sanders is just out there playing ball, but not really thinking. With a better OLine and WRs, we just might see Gabriel go back to having the better. Theoretically, Monken's style suits Gabriel's college traits perfectly and Monken's schematic history shares a lot with what Gabriel did in college: RPOs, QB autonomy, horizontal & vertical spacing.
I agree, I don't think we have our future QB on the roster right now either.
As far as Gabriel, I think Monken has a lefty bias. I've heard him make comments on a few occasions that made him sound annoyed that they have to do things two different ways because of Gabriel. I could be reading into it too much, but I don't think he is going to be here very long.
I will be surprised in the end if it isn't Sanders starting, with Watson the backup and Green the emergency QB. Unless Sanders is just god awful to the point that Watson is given the job out of not having another option.
I do believe there is merit in finding out what the best possible player on the team has when the 2027 off season could be one of the most important for this team in a very long time. I don't see a version that ends up with a Watson extension. Sure it could help the cap, but Watson doesn't care AT ALL about Cleveland's cap. He didn't want to be here in the first place and now his prison sentence is almost over. He gets parole when free agency opens. Instead of walking out with his belongings and a few hundred dollar check, he gets to gloat over his fat bank account for doing literally nothing for 5 years.
