{"id":861485,"date":"2026-04-08T20:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/861485\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T20:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:04:34","slug":"todd-monken-issues-warning-about-browns-qb-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/861485\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Monken Issues Warning About Browns’ QB Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the offseason program commences for the Cleveland Browns<\/a>, everybody wants to know who will start the spring as the team’s QB1.<\/p>\n

The problem is, not even head coach Todd Monken seems to know just yet. On Wednesday, the Browns’ new head man remained steadfast in not naming one of Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel a front-runner to win the job.<\/p>\n

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Why?<\/p>\n

“Because there\u2019s enough there of all three,” he said. “I mean, I think we\u2019d all be able to say that. There\u2019s enough there to really like Deshaun and the way he plays. There\u2019s enough there to really like the way Shedeur played at the back end of the year. And there\u2019s enough early in the year from Dillon that is playing the position at a very high level.”<\/p>\n

Even though the job may be up for grabs, Monken made it clear at the annual meetings in Phoenix, Ariz., last week that, day-to-day, the rep distribution for each signal caller wouldn’t be split evenly.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean the pecking order of who is taking reps with the ones and who is getting the most reps won’t change, though. Monken is making that clear now. In a way, it’s a warning not to read too much into the QB depth chart when they do eventually take the field later this spring.<\/p>\n

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“Yeah, someone\u2019s going to have to start off first and someone\u2019s going to go second, someone\u2019s going to go third,” said Monken. “Then we\u2019ll be willing to switch that. That\u2019s easily, on a daily basis, what we see, just like any position, that\u2019s not set in stone. That\u2019s something we can flip, just like the practice plays. We can flip that any given day to how we see fit that gives us the best chance to develop our players. Now, how they go about it, how they study, how they take care of their body, how they manage our team, how they lead, those are set in stone. Those are non-negotiables.”<\/p>\n

As Monken continues to assert, the players will decide who rises to the top and eventually wins the job. His ultimate goal, as he’s made clear on numerous occasions, is to have a sense of who his starting quarterback will be next season by the end of mandatory minicamp in June.<\/p>\n

Having clarity by then will allow Monken to distribute reps accordingly come training camp, when the focus shifts from learning the playbook and getting ramped up to actually preparing for an NFL season.<\/p>\n

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So how will Monken come to that conclusion, and eventually choose a QB1?<\/p>\n

“From a quarterback\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s a little bit more difficult just because their No. 1 job is to get us in the end zone. And that\u2019s a little bit harder to really drill down [this time of year],” Monken said. “Who\u2019s got an inner toughness to move the offense and get us in the end zone. And then ultimately, who does the team believe in? And usually that correlates. The team\u2019s going to believe in the guy that gives us the best chance to score and win.”<\/p>\n

The months ahead will be pivotal in determining who that is. Everything Watson, Sanders, and Gabriel do from here forward will impact Monken’s final decision.<\/p>\n

Browns Roundtable also offers a fan community and message board. We\u2019d love to have you join us to talk all things\u00a0Browns.\u00a0Click the \u201cJoin\u201d button at the top of the page to join our community for free.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the offseason program commences for the Cleveland Browns, everybody wants to know who will start the spring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,563,1033,7,6,17,23813],"class_list":{"0":"post-861485","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-nfl","16":"tag-shedeur-sanders","17":"tag-todd-monken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116370883434882580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861485","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=861485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}