{"id":781686,"date":"2026-02-28T07:40:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T07:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/781686\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T07:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T07:40:25","slug":"shedeur-sanders-got-a-truly-perplexing-birthday-gift-for-new-browns-coach-todd-monken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/781686\/","title":{"rendered":"Shedeur Sanders got a truly perplexing birthday gift for new Browns coach Todd Monken"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Cleveland Browns coach Todd Monken speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine, Image 2 shows Shedeur Sanders speaks to the media at the AFC Pro Bowl practice<\/p>\n

Shedeur Sanders is the Godfather of Browns gift-giving.<\/p>\n

The quarterback \u2014 one of a trio of potential starters<\/a> on the Cleveland roster \u2014 sent a rather unique gift to new coach Todd Monken for his birthday, and it\u2019s certainly left an impression.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked to [Sanders] three times, I think, he\u2019s come in to see me,\u201d Monken told CBS Sports<\/a> from the NFL combine this week. \u201cIn fact, for my birthday, I got this package. Like, all of a sudden, Feb. 5, this package comes. I thought it was from my wife. \u2026 Open it up, it\u2019s this porcelain horse head. And it\u2019s from Shedeur. He sent me a gift on my birthday.<\/p>\n

\"Shedeur<\/p>\n

Shedeur Sanders #12 of the Cleveland Browns speaks to the media before the AFC Pro Bowl practice. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I asked him, \u2018What was the meaning?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Well, I just really liked it. I got myself one.\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, great. Awesome.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it a sign of Sanders\u2019 impending Michael Corleone-esque rise above fellow QB hopefuls Deshaun Watson and Dillon Gabriel on the Browns\u2019 depth chart?<\/p>\n

No word on that yet, but Watson and Gabriel will come face-to-face with the porcelain horse head \u2014 a la Jack Woltz<\/a> \u2014 when they meet in Monken\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put it between all the Cleveland helmets and put it up there for [Sanders] to see when he comes in the office,\u201d the coach said of the gift.<\/p>\n

Monken, who revealed in Indianapolis just how close he\u2019d been to joining John Harbaugh\u2019s first Giants staff<\/a> before getting the Browns job, was asked about the three quarterbacks he\u2019s inherited and plans for an open competition.<\/p>\n

\"Browns<\/p>\n

Browns coach Todd Monken speaks during the NFL Scouting Combine. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

What he\u2019s seen so far of Sanders, he\u2019s liked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what you see is elite playmaking ability,\u201d Monken told reporters Wednesday<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s in him. You\u2019ve seen it, we\u2019ve seen it, you saw it in college, you saw it on tape last year. Sure, there\u2019s a ways to go, but what rookie isn\u2019t? What first-year player doesn\u2019t have a long way to go? I\u2019m excited to get started with him and all of our quarterbacks and all of our players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders, a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, went 3-4 in his first season with the Browns, throwing seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions after taking over as the starter in Week 12.<\/p>\n

Gabriel, a fellow rookie selected two rounds ahead of Sanders, was 1-5 with seven TDs and two interceptions.<\/p>\n

Watson is the most experienced of the three, but will enter the 2026 season in the fifth and final year of a $230 million deal that\u2019s been an unmitigated disaster for the Browns. He\u2019s started just 19 games during his tenure, missing all of last season with an Achilles injury, accounting for 19 passing touchdowns and 12 INTs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Cleveland Browns coach Todd Monken speaks at the NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,563,1033,7,2004,6,17,582,23813,110673],"class_list":{"0":"post-781686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-deshaun-watson","13":"tag-dillon-gabriel","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-indianapolis","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-shedeur-sanders","18":"tag-the-browns","19":"tag-todd-monken","20":"tag-unique-gift"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116147128363582499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781686","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=781686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}