Shedeur Sanders Throws TD but Browns Fall 31-7 to Bills as Deshaun Watson QB Battle Rolls On

Shedeur Sanders made his best case yet to be the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback, but it wasn’t enough to save the result. Sanders threw a touchdown pass and looked sharp for most of his first-half stint on Saturday, only for the Browns to get run over 31-7 by the Buffalo Bills in a preseason Week 2 matchup at Huntington Bank Field that doubled as a pivotal audition in one of the NFL’s most closely watched quarterback battles.

Sanders, a fifth-round pick in the 2025 draft, entered training camp fighting Deshaun Watson for the right to start Cleveland’s regular-season opener on Sept. 13 against Jacksonville. Watson got the nod in the preseason opener against Chicago and built an early edge, while Sanders has spent the summer trying to close the gap in practice reps and live game snaps. Saturday’s game against Buffalo, delayed 64 minutes by lightning before it even got going, gave him arguably his last extended look with the offense before head coach Todd Monken has to make a call.

Sanders Shines Early, Fades Late

Sanders opened the game about as well as he could have. He completed his first eight passes, capping an 11-play, 65-yard opening drive with an 8-yard touchdown strike to wide receiver Luke Floriea that tied the score 7-7. He finished his day 9 of 11 for 74 yards with the one touchdown, but his final pass of the half proved costly — a ball thrown behind tight end Jermaine Terry got tipped and was intercepted by Bills safety Damar Hamlin, deflating what had otherwise been a clean, efficient half of work. Sanders was also sacked once, with review confirming Buffalo’s Javon Solomon got home before he could escape the pocket.

Watson relieved Sanders to start the third quarter, drawing boos from the home crowd at Huntington Bank Field as Buffalo pulled away. A Tyler Bass 52-yard field goal pushed the Bills’ lead to 17-7 early in the third, and Buffalo continued to add on from there, with rookie Dillon Gabriel closing things out at quarterback in the fourth. The final was 31-7, dropping Cleveland to 0-2 in the preseason.

A Battle Still Too Close to Call

Watson entered the week with what most observers considered a slight edge, having outproduced Sanders in the preseason opener against the Bears — a 34-10 loss in which Watson went 11 of 15 for 126 yards and two scoring drives compared to Sanders’ 6-of-11 effort marred by a late interception. That edge held through Thursday’s joint practice with Buffalo, where Watson went 12 of 17 with a touchdown while Sanders posted a clean but modest 13-of-23 line with no touchdowns and no picks.

Monken has repeatedly insisted the competition remains unresolved, noting after the opener that it would be “unfair” not to give Sanders a real shot with the first-team offense before making a decision. Saturday’s performance likely keeps that promise intact — Sanders’ start-to-finish accuracy on the opening drive was the best half either quarterback has played so far, even if the interception muddies the takeaway. With only one more preseason game left before Cleveland has to finalize its Week 1 starter, the pressure now shifts to how Watson responds and whether Monken feels comfortable making a decision before kickoff in Jacksonville.

The stakes extend beyond one roster spot. As Cleveland weighs its quarterback of the present, bettors and fans alike are already circling how the decision could shift the Browns’ win totals and season-long markets — the kind of storyline that tends to move DraftKings promo code offers and other NFL futures markets once a starter is officially named. For now, Cleveland’s quarterback room remains a genuine open competition, with one preseason game left to settle it.