BEREA, Ohio – Shedeur Sanders or Deshaun Watson?
Wait on it. Barring some unforeseen circumstance, this won’t be the week that new Cleveland Browns coach Todd Monken settles on his starting quarterback.
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The Browns open the preseason on Saturday at Chicago, and somebody has to start. The next week, the other quarterback is pegged to get a turn. From there, let’s see what gives.
Those are the ingredients for what’s become so rare in the NFL: a legitimate training camp quarterback competition.
That Monken has been alternating the days for Sanders and Watson to work with the first-team unit throughout camp provides quite the barometer.
“It’s close,” Monken told USA TODAY Sports in an exclusive interview before a recent camp practice. “People somehow think that, like, I have some hidden agenda, or like there’s some preconceived notion.
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“Is that what they think I would do? I would just split the reps if I didn’t think it was a competition? That would be really silly. If I thought one was the starter, I’d give him the ‘one’ reps.”
So there. As much as Monken wants to make this call – and you’d think he’s collected much intel for the big decision, given the work in OTAs and minicamps – it’s about the due diligence. Observers at the Browns camp will tell you that both quarterbacks have had their moments, but apparently neither has been outstanding enough to pull away.
Starting Shedeur Sanders makes sense for Browns
Then again, the Browns – who traded away their best player, defensive end Myles Garrett – are clearly in rebuilding mode. They had an outstanding draft last year under GM Andrew Berry, landing the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in linebacker Carson Swesinger, and getting impact players in running back Quinshon Judkins and tight end Harold Fannin Jr. to fuel a youth movement. They’re collecting premium draft picks. And Monken has arrived with a new system.
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For all of that, it makes much sense to start Sanders, the second-year pro who had the epic slide to the fifth round of the draft and wound up starting seven games as a rookie. See if the kid can build on Year 1, even if he’ll work behind a rebuilt O-line, and establish himself as a potential long-term answer.
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Watson, on the other hand, costs a ton of money that will be paid, regardless, after coming to town with a fully guaranteed $230 million contract. Yet given the off-the-field issues and injuries that have derailed Watson, it’s hard to imagine the Browns going back to the bank for an extension after his contract expires after the season.
Recent history hardly provides a clue. Sanders completed 56.6% of his passes last season, with a 7-to-10 TD-to-INT ratio. Watson, 30, is a 10-year vet who had some sizzling seasons with the Houston Texans but didn’t play at all in 2025 while rehabbing from a ruptured right Achilles tendon.
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So, what’s the rub?
“I know people want a simple answer,” Monken said. “I can only tell you that chances are, in this 100-mile radius, I’m probably the best-equipped to figure it out. Probably. Just taking a shot there. Maybe. And everybody else thinks I am, probably, by nature of being hired, and my background, and I’m humble. I do not mean that as a bother. But I probably am the closest to having the idea…and I still could be wrong.”
How Todd Monken will decide between Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson
Blunt and affable, Monken seems to have decided that while the spotlight on his decision intensifies, he will embrace the banter.
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No doubt, he’s knee-deep into the details, grasping which quarterback has a better command of the system, which has been more consistent in practice and which handles the physical demands. Yet this begs for more layers of evaluation under the lights in preseason.
“You go to practice, you watch them play as best you can,” Monken said. “You play in the preseason with your system and you’re still not going to know for sure. Because I haven’t been around them. I don’t have a sample size.”
This is certainly an adjustment for the coach, who in his last job as Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator built his offense around a two-time MVP-credentialed quarterback in Lamar Jackson.
In Cleveland, long before Monken arrived, it’s been one quarterback after another. Since the franchise reboot as an expansion operation in 1999, the Browns have had 42 quarterbacks start games – most in the NFL during that span.
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Monken was surely hired with the idea of reversing that pattern of instability.
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Sure, whoever wins the job this summer might only turn out as a temporary fix. It’s possible that Cleveland, with two first-round picks in 2027, will be in the market for drafting a quarterback. Unless, well, Sanders influences them to proceed otherwise.
Then again, as much as Sanders might be a sentimental favorite – he’s already one of the NFL’s more popular players when it comes to jersey sales and marketing – the job can’t be merely given to him without merit. He needs to earn the job through performance.
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Stay tuned. It stands to reason that Monken will make his decision before the final preseason game on August 27 against New England. But there’s no rush.
“The moment I make that decision, what if we go two or three days and all of a sudden what if the guy doesn’t play as well,” Monken said. “OK, now you’ve got to backtrack. And all those things that you go through, you’ve got to retract what you say. So, that’s just part of it.
“So, you’re better off until you know, let it play out.”
Which is anything but a week-to-week proposition.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Browns QB battle is real. Todd Monken calls debate ‘really silly’ | Exclusive
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