Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken did his best to douse the flames on his looming quarterback decision between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders — “I’m not there yet,” he said on 92.3 The Fan on Friday morning — but he did affirm one thing that, from the outside looking in, makes absolutely no sense.
While he didn’t deny anything, Monken hardly endorsed the report out of Berea this week that Watson gained “an edge” over Sanders during the team’s recent veteran minicamp. What he did confirm, however, was a desire to set the quarterback depth chart ahead of training camp so that reps can be divided accordingly.
“What I’ve seen after three days, OK, that gives us a little bit of a 40,000-foot view of where we’re at,” Monken said. “But that can change once we get back on the field for four weeks at the end of the spring. We’ll have a better idea then. But there’s only so many reps you get. You have to start to target towards who’s going to start opening day. Now that can still change, and that can change even if someone’s getting two-thirds of the reps, or if someone’s getting a third of the reps, because you’re still going to play preseason games. So we’re going to want to see those guys and see how they play.”
There’s only one problem with Monken’s messaging: He's talking out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to the quarterback competition, and the unrest among the fan base is impossible to ignore.
Todd Monken can’t have it both ways when it comes to Browns’ QB decision
Monken reiterated Friday that it’s his job not to make any preconceived judgments on his players. To him, the Browns’ entire roster is external, outside of wide receiver Tylan Wallace who he coached in Baltimore. He went back to the metaphor of a teacher handing out grades before letting the students take an exam.
“I’m going to let all the students take the test,” Monken told hosts Ken Carman and Anthony Lima. “My job is to let it play out.”
As a seasoned coach like Monken knows as well as anyone, NFL position battles aren’t decided during voluntary OTAs. They’re definitely not accurately judged during a voluntary minicamp in April that didn’t include Jerry Jeudy, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, or any of the team's 2026 rookie class.
Monken actually put it perfectly: Last week’s vet minicamp from April 21-23 (a special exception from the NFL for the Browns hiring a new head coach) provided a 40,000-foot view. Even with 20-20 vision, there’s not much to glean from those three days outside of who looks best throwing the football in shorts with no fear of getting hit.
National talk shows literally ran with topics like: “Report: Deshaun Watson emerged from voluntary minicamp with an edge over Shedeur Sanders as Browns’ QB1.” It’s only May 1, but that might be the most ridiculous sentence Browns fans see or hear all season.
“If Shedeur Sanders cannot beat out Deshaun Watson, even in year 2, it is a stinging indictment on wherever Shedeur is going to be as a pro... I did not expect him to lose a fair, head-up competition to Deshaun Watson.”@getnickwright explains: pic.twitter.com/cY0bKnDj9a
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) April 30, 2026
Over the balance of his three-plus months on the job, Monken has done an admirable job with his messaging. His no-fluff, tell-it-to-ya-straight approach has been refreshing coming off the Kevin Stefanski era, and it’s already resonating with the fan base.
Monken has been less forthcoming about the quarterback situation, however, and that’s a game Browns fans definitely aren’t interested in playing.
You can’t preach competition, and promise to take an unbiased approach without preconceived biases, only to undercut the entire process by setting the depth chart early and awarding one player the lion’s share of the reps ahead of training camp. That’s not a legitimate competition.
If the Browns truly don’t yet know who their starter is going to be, why wouldn’t Watson and Sanders split first-team reps evenly when the pads come on in July? Each player could get a chance to both start and come off the bench in a preseason game, and Monken, to use his phrasing, could let it play out from there.
Browns fans don’t need anyone to tell them what’s coming. Everyone's now expecting Watson to be declared QB1 on the depth chart sometime over the next month or so, with the company line being that Sanders will still have a chance to win the job later in the summer.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that the player getting two-thirds of the reps with the first-team offense will have a clear advantage over the player getting one-third of the reps. Monken’s a straight-shooter. That’s what we all love about him. If Watson’s going to be the guy to start 2026, it would be in the new head coach's best interest to quit the awkward mind games and just tell it like it is.
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