Browns Won’t Name a Starting Quarterback Until After Both Preseason Games, Monken Says
Todd Monken isn’t in a hurry, and he wants everyone to stop pretending he is.
Asked directly Monday whether he’s picked a starting quarterback between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders, the Browns head coach didn’t hedge around it.
“I have not,” Monken said, according to a transcript published by the team. “I anticipate the next couple of days, I’m going through, they’re each going to start a game.”
That’s the headline. But the more useful part of what Monken said is the process he laid out to get there. Sanders and Watson will each start one preseason game. Cleveland then has to figure out how to split practice reps heading into joint sessions with the Buffalo Bills next week, since neither quarterback can simply sit while the other runs the entire install. Only after both starts, Monken said, does he expect to have “a better idea” of who takes over Week 1.
Why the Browns Are In No Rush on Their QB Battle
This isn’t Cleveland dragging its feet for the sake of competitive theater. It’s a function of what each quarterback actually needs from camp. Watson is coming off a lost 2025 season, sidelined the entire year by multiple ACL tears, and Monken was blunt about what that layoff still costs him physically and mentally, regardless of his track record.
“It’s still new for him. It’s new offense, new coaching staff, new players, and he hasn’t played a lot of football over the last however many years it’s been,” Monken said of Watson. He added that even a quarterback who’s “played relatively well or at an elite level” needs time to get his body and processing speed back after a gap like that.
Sanders, meanwhile, is coming off a rookie season that earned him a Pro Bowl nod as a replacement selection — but the underlying numbers were rough. Among the 36 quarterbacks with at least 200 pass attempts in 2025, Sanders finished last in completion percentage and passer rating, and second-to-last in interceptions thrown. The Pro Bowl trip said more about star power and a vacated AFC roster spot than it did about on-field efficiency. That gap between Sanders’ name recognition and his actual rookie-year output is the thing that gets glossed over every time this competition comes up, and it’s worth sitting with: whoever wins this job is winning it on 2026 practice tape, not on last year’s results for either guy.
Watson’s Turnaround, and What Changed
One detail buried in Monday’s session deserves more attention than it’s gotten. A reporter noted Watson threw seven interceptions in his first seven training camp practices, then just one over his last four. Monken didn’t oversell the fix.
“A little bit of it is that the install has shrunk,” he said, while also acknowledging Watson took bigger risks early — pushing throws, trying to create outside structure — before settling down. He compared it to a rough stretch he saw from Lamar Jackson in Baltimore years ago that resolved itself as the offense simplified. That’s a real coaching read, not spin: shrinking the install reduces the decision tree a quarterback has to run through pre-snap, which cuts down on hesitation-driven picks. It’s a common training camp pattern, not a guarantee it holds once the offense expands back out for the regular season.
Monken was also asked to clarify an earlier comment where he seemed to suggest Watson had passed Sanders. He pushed back on that read directly: “I don’t think I said he’s better than Shedeur… Each of them is better at certain things than the other.” Take that for what it’s worth given he’s the one making the call, but it’s a more careful answer than the framing this competition usually gets.
The Left Tackle Job Is Also Getting Sorted Out
The quarterback battle isn’t the only competition Monken addressed. Rookie Spencer Fano will take first-team reps at left tackle after holding his ground in a scuffle with edge rusher Jared Verse over the weekend — the kind of camp moment coaches genuinely weigh when RB protection and pass-pro confidence are on the line up front. Denzel Boston is also getting more first-team reps at receiver as the staff experiments with moving Jerry Jeudy around the formation.
What Happens Next
Sanders started with the ones Monday; Watson gets the next turn Tuesday, with Sanders back with the pads on Wednesday. Whoever draws the first preseason start hasn’t been announced. Given Monken’s own timeline, don’t expect real clarity on RB1 at quarterback until after both men have played a preseason snap under the lights — likely sometime after Cleveland’s second exhibition game, once joint practices with Buffalo are behind them.
If a coach tells you twice in one press conference that speculation about who’s “winning” is premature, the smart move is probably to believe him.
