Todd Monken wanted to draft Shedeur Sanders last year with the Ravens. Now he is his coach—and doesn’t know if he’ll start. Sanders, a 2025 Pro Bowler [pause for laughter], finished the season as the Browns’ starter. He believes he proved that he can dominate in the NFL. Monken, however, hasn’t seen enough to blindly hand him the starting job.
Asked if he will operate with Shedeur Sanders as the Browns’ starting quarterback this offseason, Monken demurred. “Well, I think like any position on the team, that’s still to be determined. Am I excited about Shedeur? Am I excited about all the quarterbacks in the room? Am I excited to coach this football team? Absolutely. I can’t wait for them to get back and for us to get started”.
A fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Shedeur Sanders spent a good chunk of his rookie season as the Browns’ third-string quarterback. After the team traded Joe Flacco, he graduated to backup, with fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel starting. An injury to Gabriel opened the door for him to claim the starting job. Or at least for the Browns to use it as an excuse to see how it plays out.
Now, Sanders did make some big-time NFL throws, and he clearly has talent. His body of work, however, frequently ranked near the bottom of the league. He was among the least accurate passers in the NFL and had the second-highest interception rate. On 212 attempts, he threw 10 touchdown passes and 7 interceptions. The only quarterbacks who had a lower successful play rate were Brady Cook and…Dillon Gabriel. So Sanders eventually starting over Gabriel is not so impressive.
Reports surfaced that the Ravens wanted to draft Shedeur Sanders, but that Sanders didn’t want to be stuck behind Lamar Jackson. Todd Monken declined to comment about that, though he told Sanders he wanted to draft him. The Browns even advertised it on social media. “We tried to draft your ass last year”, he said in a video clip posted on Cleveland’s X account. “It’s all worked out. You remember that, right? Someday we’ll get a chance to talk about that”.
Yet when asked about it during his press conference, Monken said of Sanders and the Ravens’ interest in him that it would be “unfair” to comment. “Obviously, we had an affection, like a lot of teams, of Shedeur’s skill set and what we thought he could become, but I really wouldn’t want to go in depth of another team’s process”.
If Shedeur Sanders is not Todd Monken’s starter, the Browns don’t currently have a lot of tempting alternatives. There is Deshaun Watson, to whom they are still chained due to his comically bloated contract. Now finally healthy enough to play, will Monken actually consider playing him? There is also the draft and free agency—including bringing back Joe Flacco. Another Pro Bowler. Because the honorific no longer holds any meaning at this point.