Frustrating Kevin Stefanski-era habit just won't die at Browns training camp

Todd Monken’s old-school style and candid approach to handling the media quickly won Browns fans over back in the spring. But the dog days of summer are bringing back some painful memories.

The Cleveland Browns just took the field for their final practice ahead of Saturday’s preseason opener at Chicago. Monken, as he’s done throughout training camp, met with the media beforehand and once again wasn’t ready to name a starting quarterback. On the unofficial depth chart the team is required to release prior to each game, the No. 1 quarterback spot was listed as “Deshaun Watson OR Shedeur Sanders.”

"I have my reasons," Monken said prior to Wednesday's practice. "I have my reasons of how it's going to go. It's not... I mean, it's still a competition. We're still excited to watch guys practice today, let alone on Saturday and then next week against Buffalo. We'll get a chance to see them both, and then every week we'll assess it."

Browns fans have been here before, and it’s exhausting.

Last summer, Kevin Stefanski waited until Aug. 18, which was the week of preseason Game 3, to finally name Joe Flacco the starting quarterback over Kenny Pickett and then-rookie Dillon Gabriel. Flacco had signed a one-year, incentive-loaded contract in April to be the starting quarterback. He took the most meaningful first-team reps, including during joint practices with the Panthers and Eagles. 

But Stefanski painfully couldn’t bring himself to just say what every Browns fan already knew was coming.

"We will name a starter. It's going to come this week," Stefanski told reporters back on Aug. 17, 2025, one day before Flacco was finally announced as the Week 1 starter. "We still anticipate all of our players, whether you're a starter or not, to prepare like you're the starter. Knowing all of our players in that room, that's exactly what they'll do."

Browns fans can only laugh as the exact same situation unfolds in Atlanta. As Falcons expert Jason Kandel wrote for Blogging Dirty, Tua Tagovailoa has been “settling the Atlanta Falcons' QB battle in real time,” but Stefanski, now in Year 1 as head coach of the Falcons, can’t help himself. He’s yet to name Tagovailoa the official starter over Michael Penix Jr., who’s been limited in camp due to last year’s ACL injury.

But how does the old saying go, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry? That might be the best way to describe the mental state of Browns fans right now, as Monken has gone full Stefanski when it comes to Deshaun Watson vs. Shedeur Sanders.

Todd Monken isn’t fooling anyone with the state of the Browns’ quarterback competition

The most painful part? Aside from the ride-or-die Sanders crew, Browns fans already know exactly what’s coming, just like last year's played-out Flacco announcement.

It’s going to be Watson. The Browns finally broke their pattern of alternating first-team reps on Saturday, Aug. 8, and Monken’s explanation left plenty to be desired. The coach said that Watson spent the full two-hour practice with the starters to help balance out the total rep count dating back to Day 1 of camp. At that point, Sanders had gotten more time with the starters during fully-padded practice days, but with Watson getting back-to-back days with the first unit, and Sanders splitting second-team reps with Dillon Gabriel on Aug. 8, that discrepancy has now drastically flipped the other way.

The hope was that Sanders would have pulled away by now, but based on the reporters who have been in Berea tracking every practice, that hasn’t happened. If anything, it’s Watson who appears to be stacking his best days and leaving the team little choice but to roll with the player who will earn a $46 million base salary in 2026.

This is a delicate situation for obvious reasons. The fans are going to react negatively whenever Watson is officially named the starter for Week 1 of the regular season. Sanders has reportedly been working tirelessly behind the scenes, and he deserved some rope entering training camp to potentially influence the decision.

But everyone already knows what’s coming. The longer Monken puts it off, the more brutal the reaction from the team’s die-hard fan base will be.

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