Over his first two months as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Todd Monken’s authenticity has shined through and helped endear him to a wary fan base. He’s remained coy, however, on the one question every Browns fan wants answered, and that song-and-dance continued Wednesday during Monken’s latest sit-down with local reporters.
The Browns kicked off Phase 1 of their voluntary offseason program earlier this week. It marked Monken’s first chance to get in front of the team’s returning players and set the tone for Year 1 of his tenure. The team is not yet permitted to conduct on-field workouts, but as a new hire, Monken will be able to host a voluntary veteran minicamp right before the draft (April 21-23) as a precursor to OTAs, which begin May 19.
Monken was asked if he knew which of his three quarterbacks — Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson, or Dillon Gabriel — would lead the team into drills and get the first reps during the team's veteran minicamp later this month, and his roundabout answer was one Browns fans have come to expect.
“Not really, because there’s enough there of all three," Monken said. "I mean, I think we’d all be willing to say that. I mean, there’s enough there to really like Deshaun, the way he plays. And there’s enough there to really like the way Shedeur played at the back end of the year. And then there’s enough early in the year from Dillon, that is playing the position at a very high level. So … yeah, someone’s going to have to start off first. And then someone’s going to go second. And someone’s going to go third. And then we’ll be willing to switch that. … That’s not set in stone. That’s something that we can flip.”
Why Browns fans already have a clear read on the QB1 situation
Voluntary minicamps don’t tend to gain much national traction, but the official start of the Browns’ QB competition is sure to generate headlines.
Despite the team’s best efforts to talk up Watson this offseason, Browns fans aren’t buying it. The expectation should be for Sanders to lead the team into on-field workouts, and for him to remain atop the depth chart into training camp unless his performance leaves Monken and company no choice but to make a change.
It would make absolutely no sense for the team to treat Watson as its de facto QB1 when he hasn’t thrown a real NFL pass since October of 2024. The injury he’s attempting to come back from — a twice ruptured Achilles tendon — at the age of 30 is beyond daunting, and Sanders proved himself to the locker room last year by rolling with the punches and leading the team to a pair of divisional wins over the Bengals and Steelers to close the regular season.
Does Watson have an outside shot to win the job this summer, as team brass has been insisting all offseason? Anything’s possible, but it would likely take a return to elite form when the pads come on in late July for that scenario to gain any real traction.
As it stands now, here in April during the initial phases of the Browns' offseason program? It’s all about familiarity. It’s not a stretch to assume that Sanders, the quarterback who helped unlock tight end Harold Fannin Jr. and wide receiver Isaiah Bond while injecting life into a stagnant offense in 2025, will top the depth chart until it’s painfully clear that a change is in order.