The Cleveland Browns quarterback battle between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson seemingly reached a fever pitch during the team’s practice on Saturday. With Sanders and Watson rotating days with the No. 1 offense, Saturday was Sanders’ day, and head coach Todd Monken confirmed that during his pre-practice media availability.
However, it was Watson who ultimately took all the No. 1 reps on Saturday. That led to some heated discussions from fans and media members, as everyone tried to figure out why they were led astray. On Monday, Monken explained that it was a last-minute change in order to balance out the QBs’ reps with the top unit, but the discourse was already too far gone.
One talking point that emerged from the situation was Sanders’ reported reaction. ESPN Cleveland reporter Justin Cooper said that the young quarterback’s body language seemed “off,” and, “you could tell that he, probably, was upset that it was his turn to take first-team reps and he got put to the back of the line behind Deshaun. You could clearly see out of his body language that he wasn’t his normal energized self.”
Tyvis Powell, on The Barbershop Final Cut, echoed a similar sentiment, saying, “Honestly, Shedeur, I thought he responded in a really good way… but you could tell he was pissed,” emphasizing that he responded with his play by threading needles and being locked in with his passes.
Naturally, like anything with Sanders, there was a quick push from some detractors to make this a negative thing. However, the young quarterback’s head coach loved it. Speaking with the media on Monday, Monken praised the quarterbacks for how they are handling the splitting of the reps, and explained that he would be disappointed if Sanders didn’t feel strongly about not getting his reps with the starting unit.
"We’re trying as best we can to balance the reps, so we give both of them an opportunity to showcase their skill set. It’s never going to be perfect, and they’ve handled that great. Shedeur today was great. Sure, maybe Saturday he would’ve preferred to be with the ones, and I’d be pissed if he wasn’t, because all of our guys should want to be with the ones. But they’ve been great, and I think they’ve both improved."
This shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone who has paid attention to Monken since he arrived in Cleveland — or to anyone who follows football seriously. Coaches like competitors, and competitors are rarely thrilled about having their reps taken away. Of course, there’s still a way to go about things, and by all accounts, Sanders had the right approach by responding with his play while frustrated.
Coaches love when that happens. Monken, specifically, just had a practice speech go viral where he passionately expressed that he would rather be considered crazy than being OK with being a loser. Any coach who says things like that would absolutely want their players to be frustrated about not getting reps with the starters.
So while all the online critics were ready to be body language experts and police the reaction of a player in a tight position battle, Todd Monken saw the exact kind of reaction he wanted to see out of Shedeur Sanders.
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