Multiple reports insisted that first-year Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken named Deshaun Watson the club’s Week 1 starting quarterback over Shedeur Sanders because Monken truly “thinks Watson gives the Browns the best chance to win” the regular-season opener at the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 13.
During the latest edition of the “Orange and Brown Talk” podcast, Browns beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that what “happened in meeting rooms,” “in walkthroughs” and “in the operational details that never show up in a clip shared on social media” this summer resulted in Sanders essentially losing the competition for the starting job.
Browns think Deshaun Watson will produce less “crappy football” than Shedeur Sanders?
“Todd has been trying to tell us over and over and over again that Shedeur still needs to come up the learning curve on that kind of stuff,” Cabot explained. “Todd does not like what he calls ‘crappy football.’ And it’s not that Shedeur would play crappy football, but you have to have a certain amount of comfortability with the system, with the scheme to be able to run the show.”
The “crappy football” Cabot was referencing was related to the pre-snap penalties/infractions that were linked with Sanders throughout training camp. While Watson played poorly as he completed 5-of-12 passes for 36 yards and an interception against Buffalo Bills backups in this past Saturday’s preseason game, Cabot’s comments could lead one to believe that Monken knew the identity of his Week 1 QB1 before the Buffalo contest got underway.
Did Todd Monken underestimate Shedeur Sanders in early days of competition with Deshaun Watson?
On Monday, Browns reporter Jason Lloyd of The Athletic mentioned that “it has been clear for months that the team’s preference was for Watson to start” in Week 1. During the “Orange and Brown Talk” episode, Browns beat reporter Ashley Bastock of the Cleveland Plain Dealer suggested that Monken may have underestimated Sanders’ ability to close the gap in the quarterback battle through Cleveland’s first two preseason games.
“I think that sort of big-play ability from Shedeur is what kept him in this competition as long as it did,” Bastock added. “I mean, this dragged on, I think, much longer than Todd Monken thought it initially would when he took the head coaching job here (this past winter).”
Many Browns fans already want Sanders to start, and those paying customers will clamor for Monken to bench Watson if the veteran plays poorly against Jacksonville and at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 20. It sounds like Monken will only turn to Sanders if the 24-year-old somehow proves over the next month that he can better “run the show” on gamedays than where he is regarding that aspect of his development as of Aug. 25.
