{"id":777507,"date":"2026-02-26T12:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/777507\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:35:15","slug":"shedeur-sanders-first-met-cleveland-browns-head-coach-todd-monken-but-hc-has-heart-out-for-veteran-deshaun-watson-nfl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/777507\/","title":{"rendered":"Shedeur Sanders first met Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken but HC has heart out for veteran Deshaun Watson | NFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nfl-todd-monken.jpg\" alt=\"Shedeur Sanders first met Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken but HC has heart out for veteran Deshaun Watson\" title=\"Shedeur Sanders first met Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken but HC has heart out for veteran Deshaun Watson (Image via Getty: Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson, Todd Monken)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Shedeur Sanders first met Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken but HC has heart out for veteran Deshaun Watson (Image via Getty: Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson, Todd Monken) When the Baltimore Ravens\u2019 offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, was hired by the Cleveland Browns as their head coach for the 2026 season, Browns\u2019 no-longer-a-rookie quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, went to meet him in person.A viral video showed both of them shaking hands. Then Monken even pulled Sanders\u2019 shoulder and said, \u201cHey, we tried to draft your a** last year for God\u2019s sake! It all worked out. You remember that, right?\u201dThe last starting signal caller chuckled and said, \u201cThat\u2019s what I was about to tell you\u2026\u201d Monken responded, \u201cSomeday, we\u2019ll get a chance to talk about that,\u201d and that day should have come. But what happens instead? <\/p>\n<p>Todd Monken says Deshaun Watson has legit shot at starter role for Cleveland Browns<\/p>\n<p> In a recent interview at the NFL Combine, Monken said he would not decide who\u2019d start in 2026. He also declared that a veteran quarterback, Deshaun Watson, who has not played since 2024, would get a legit shot at the starter\u2019s role. Cleveland.com\u2019s Mary Kay Cabot shared an interview clip of Monken on X, where he explains why Watson might have a shot at a starter role. \u201cWhen you have a player that at one time has exhibited the skill set at an elite level,\u201d the coach said. \u201cI think you\u2019re always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we might be able to get that out of them again. But I think that\u2019s how you should look at every player. I\u2019m gonna let it play out.I think it\u2019d be completely unfair, just like it would be in any grassroots setting: at a history exam, all the students walk in, and before they\u2019ve actually given any exam, you give them a grade. Well, how would you give them a grade? Based on male, female, race, how they look, how they\u2019re dressed? I think that\u2019s unfair.Now, you\u2019re gonna have some preconceived notions, obviously, because we have prior evidence. But I don\u2019t decide who plays. The players decide who plays. I\u2019ve never decided who plays.\u201dLong story short, it looks like there would be a quarterback competition 2.0 in Cleveland. As if it wasn\u2019t enough for the 2025 season when six, yes, six QBs fought for a single spot: starter role at the Browns. What\u2019s so exciting about this? Only a quarterback can understand.But despite being the most coveted role in the 2025 offseason, the season record did not feel like the QB battle had come to fruition! With only five wins and 12 losses, Cleveland ranked last in the AFC North.Their 2025 offseason QB battle featured veteran Joe Flacco, who was injured midway through; rookie Dillion Gabriel, who struggled; and Shedeur Sanders, who faced tougher matchups but had very little time to acclimatize.Kenny Pickett was traded to the Las Vegas Raiders before the season. Tyler Huntley was also released even before the season began. Who\u2019s at fault? The head coach, Kevin Stefanski? Or the front office\u2026 well, now that the head coach has changed, the QB battle is back! Now, Sanders, Gabriel, and Watson may be the only contenders for the most coveted role: starting quarterback!Unless the front office decides to use their sixth overall pick to bring in another blockbuster rookie signal caller just to stir things up in the quarterback chamber\u2026only time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shedeur Sanders first met Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken but HC has heart out for veteran Deshaun&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[117,86,85,54,2337,563,1033,7,562,8934,6,927,6978,17,23813],"class_list":{"0":"post-777507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-browns","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-browns","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-deshaun-watson","14":"tag-dillon-gabriel","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-joe-flacco","17":"tag-mary-kay-cabot","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-nfl-combine","20":"tag-quarterback-competition","21":"tag-shedeur-sanders","22":"tag-todd-monken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116136964266936190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}