A few days after Cleveland Browns’ beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot suggested that Deshaun Watson was the leading candidate to be the team’s starting quarterback over Shedeur Sanders following voluntary minicamp, Todd Monken clarified and set more realistic expectations.
The Browns’ head coach, in a recent appearance on “The Ken Carman Show With Anthony Lima,” confirmed that he hasn’t decided on the quarterback yet. Monken stressed that a lot of things can change for the team in the coming months.
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Monken, who took over from Kevin Stefanski after the Browns dismissed him, has no prior experience with either quarterback and has been open about this. When questioned about preferring to have the starting quarterback decided before training camp begins, the head coach confirmed that he “would love to have that.”
“I’m not there yet, so I can’t say that,” Monken said. “We’ve been on the field [for] three practices, which was awesome to get out there with our players… It’s always changing based on what you see.”
“I don’t have a history with any of our players,” he continued. “I know where this is heading, but I don’t have a history with any of the players. So the point is what I’ve seen after three days, okay, that gives us a little bit of a 40,000-foot view of where we’re at. But that can change. Once we get back on the field for four weeks at the end of this spring, we’ll have a better idea then.”
“I would love to have that, I’m not there yet. We’ve been on the field 3 practices… There’s only so many reps you get, you start to target who is gonna start opening day. That can change even if someone is gonna get 2/3 of reps or 1/3 of reps because you’re still gonna play… pic.twitter.com/Thl7p9bbHH
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“But there’s only so many reps you get,” Monken added. “Now that can still change, and that can change even if someone’s getting two-thirds of the reps to someone getting a third of the reps, because you’re still going to play preseason games. You’re still going to want to see those guys at quarterback and see how they play.”
Neither Watson or Sanders’ résumé inspires overwhelming confidence. Sanders completed 56.6% of his passes for 1,400 yards, 7 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions across 7 starts as a rookie. According to PFSN’s QB Impact Metric, he posted an impact score of 56.0, ranking fourth-worst in the league.
Watson hasn’t taken a snap since rupturing his Achilles tendon on Oct. 20, 2024, then re-tearing it in January 2025. In 19 career games with Cleveland, he’s gone 9-10 with 19 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and has completed just 61.2% of his throws.
However, Watson is entering the final year of his fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract. Cleveland has every incentive to put him on the field and evaluate whether anything remains of the quarterback who earned three Pro Bowl selections in Houston.
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If Watson struggles, the Browns can still pivot to Sanders with minimal long-term risk. If the 30-year-old quarterback proves functional in Monken’s system, Cleveland extracts some return on one of the most criticized trades in NFL history.
Regardless of who takes the first snap in September, Cleveland’s offensive overhaul through the 2026 NFL Draft should ease the burden considerably. The Browns selected Utah tackle Spencer Fano at No. 9 overall, Texas A&M receiver KC Concepcion at No. 24, and Washington’s Denzel Boston at No. 39, injecting speed and size into a receiving corps that lacked explosiveness in 2025.
Even if Watson and Sanders don’t perform well, the Browns are well-positioned to draft a quarterback next year, as the 2027 quarterback class is considered much deeper.
Cleveland has 10 picks next year and could package them to move up in the draft and select their next franchise quarterback. Moreover, the team has ensured that any new quarterback they get will have weapons around him and a functional offensive line.
