The Cleveland Browns have spent the 21st century looking for a franchise quarterback. However, first-year head coach Todd Monken may be starting his tenure on Lake Erie with the right guy for the position for seasons to come.
Second-year quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who had an up-and-down rookie campaign in Cleveland after a shocking fall to the fifth round in the 2025 NFL draft, has had undeniable development since then, according to Browns general manager Andrew Berry.
“The past eight-to-10 weeks — and really, probably beyond that, probably the past six months, with as a rookie player in particular a quarterback, you learn a lot your first year,” Berry said.
“I think he’s had an excellent spring. His growth has been tremendous, so we’re all really excited to see Shedeur’s fall camp, preseason when we get into live situations. His growth has really been phenomenal.”
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“And especially if you don’t start a full season … and you go through the year, adjustment going into the NFL, and then you get a chance to catch your breath and say, here are the things that we need to work on, here are the things I need to learn. And I think he did a phenomenal job this offseason.”
Sanders will have to beat out veteran Deshaun Watson for the starting job in training camp, but if Berry’s word is anything to judge by, he is in prime position to do just that. Luckily for both Sanders and Watson, politics won’t play into who wins the job. Monken plans on giving the job to whoever earns it on the field.
“I don’t care. Whoever gives us the best chance to score, and I won’t know that till we play,” Monken said of the battle. “We don’t know this now in shorts, and we may not know it until we play in the preseason games. And even then, there’s no guarantee of who you’re playing against. The matchups are not always equal. You can decide you’re playing their ones and they’re not.
“So ultimately, we take all the information in the offseason and then training camp and then the preseason game of practice and then let it rip.”
The Browns’ preseason will be high-stakes, to say the least.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.