On Saturday in Berea, the world stopped. Well, Browns fans world stopped. Okay, a little too dramatic. Browns fans restarted an endless argument of who’s the starting quarterback based on first team reps. On a day when according to the previous nine days, second year QB Sheduer Sanders was supposed to get first team reps, head coach Todd Monken switched things up and gave all the first team reps to Deshaun Watson. Chaos ensued. The media saw an opportunity to make money on social media sound bites. and the “Sanderites” were making plans to storm the castle. The conspiracy theories started coming fast and furious. Jimmy Haslam told the head coach to start Watson. Andrew Berry told the head coach to start Watson. When Monken was hired, he was told he would have to start Watson. Sanders asked for a trade. This means Watson will be the Browns starting quarterback in 2026. Blah, blah blah.
This all started when before practice on Saturday, Todd Monken was asked by the media if Sanders was going to get first team reps. He said, “With a seven-on-seven, might end up where Deshaun gets one of those, that’s what we’ve been doing, but Shedeur will take the majority of the one reps today.” Sanders got none, Watson got all of them. After practice, a team spokesperson said, “There were personnel groupings he wanted to see Deshaun with.” Oh My God, an NFL head coach lied to the media, or did he? On Friday no one noticed an article written by Mary Kay Cabot who asked Monken why Sanders was getting more padded practices than Watson. His answer was if Sanders went Saturday, he would have three padded practices to Watson’s one. So were they trying to even things up? “Not on purpose,” Monken said. “It was just every other day.” The pads came off and went back on according to their own calendar. The quarterbacks alternated according to a different one. Things got out of sync.”
Now the assumption is Deshaun Watson will start the first preseason game in Chicago. As of this writing, nothing has been announced. But if you listened to our podcast, (The Fanatical Elfz Network) on Friday afternoon, you would have heard me say I thought Watson was going to be the starter against the Bears. My reasoning was, he’s not going to be with the team next year, give him the opportunity to showcase himself for his next team in 2027. Also, Monken right now is trying to coach out the continuing bad habit of this team and pre snap penalties. He hates them as much as the fans. Hell, members of the media wanted to run Kevin Stafanski out of town in 2024 because the Browns led the league in pre snap penalties. Watson is way better at getting the team to the line of scrimmage and getting the play called without mistakes. Sanders just can’t do this, mainly because in college he didn’t have to. I’m going to wait and see if Monken announces Sanders as the starter in preseason game two.
The plain honest truth is that this quarterback room is average at best. Watson is better pre snap than Sanders. Maybe it’s just a case of both options are bad, and the head coach is picking the option that’s the least objectionable in terms of what happens on the field. When Dillon Gabriel is the most consistent quarterback on this team that should tell you everything. All I know is, today’s media availability by Monken is a must listen. Stay safe and Go Browns.