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The question of who will start at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns has a wrinkle to it: There’s a new coaching staff.
The staff that gave Shedeur Sanders seven starts last season when Sanders was a rookie is gone. Todd Monken, who was the Baltimore Ravens’ offensive coordinator last season, was hired to become Cleveland’s new head coach.
There’s a full offseason to go, in terms of acquiring new players in trades, free agency or the draft. The quarterback landscape in Cleveland could change. But Monken, meeting with the media at the NFL scouting combine on Wednesday, had positive things to say about Sanders.
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“I think what you see is elite playmaking ability,” Monken said at the combine. “That’s in him. You’ve seen it, we’ve seen it, you saw it in college, you saw it on tape last year. Sure there’s a ways to go, but what rookie isn’t? What first-year player doesn’t have a long way to go? I’m excited to get started with him and all of our quarterbacks and all of our players.”
Sanders was up and down as a rookie after a highly publicized fall in the draft. He had seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions, and general manager Andrew Berry pointed out at the combine on Tuesday that he had to cut down on mistakes.
That progression, and the Browns’ offseason moves, could determine if Sanders gets more starts next season. Monken said he didn’t think it was necessarily important to add more quarterbacks in the offseason, but he said the team will do it’s due diligence at the position.
As is, the team’s three options seem to be Sanders, fellow 2025 rookie Dillon Gabriel and Deshaun Watson, whom the team refuses to rule out as an option.
“I think anytime you have a player that at one time has exhibited the skill set at an elite level, I think you’re always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we might be able to get that out of him again,” Monken said about Watson.
That’s not a great quarterback room, but the Browns also don’t have a great path to adding a better rookie quarterback in the draft, and there are limited options in free agency.
If the Browns’ quarterback room doesn’t change, there’s clearly no leader at the moment to start next season.
“Sure, I think it’s an open competition,” Monken said. “I don’t know why it wouldn’t be an open competition, and I don’t mean to say that harshly. But I don’t think there’s enough on film over the last couple of years one way or the other to say, ‘Boy, we have a starter at quarterback.’”
The Browns will evaluate whoever is on the roster over offseason practices and Monken said he’d like to have a starter in mind by training camp. But right now, he didn’t know if he’d be able to name a starter by then.
“You would hope that’s the case, you’d hope that by the time you get to training camp, the reps you’re giving to a quarterback are for your starter,” Monken said. “Whether we get to that place, I don’t know. That will be determined in the offseason.”