BEREA, Ohio (AP) \u2014 Todd Monken reiterated two points about the quarterback competition between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders as the Cleveland Browns held their second voluntary organized team activity practice on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Both are doing well, and the only deadline the Browns’ first-year coach has in mind for naming a starter is by the Sept. 13 opener at Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing\u2019s really changed other than it\u2019s a different day and you\u2019re firing the same questions,\u201d Monken said. \u201cI mean, we\u2019re going to rotate those guys and play the best player, and we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson and Sanders both got plenty of snaps with the first team in 11-on-11 drills. Watson\u2019s came at the beginning and Sanders\u2019 were later.<\/p>\n
Even though Monken isn\u2019t tipping his hand on who might have the advantage after one month of offseason work, he has liked the progress both have made so far.<\/p>\n
Watson, who missed last season after tearing his Achilles tendon twice, has gone 9-10 as Cleveland\u2019s starter since being acquired from Houston in 2022. He has 19 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions and an 80.7 passer rating.<\/p>\n
Monken, named Cleveland\u2019s coach on Jan. 28, lauded Watson\u2019s athleticism despite multiple injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a surprise, but it\u2019s exciting to see \u2014 it\u2019s a weapon for him. It\u2019s one of his superpowers, his athleticism,\u201d Monken said.<\/p>\n
Watson connected on a deep ball with rookie Denzel Boston. The second-round pick made the catch in the end zone while being covered by Tyson Campbell and Ronnie Hickman.<\/p>\n
Even though Watson\u2019s future in Cleveland appeared to be bleak last year, Monken said he is giving everyone a clean slate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really cool that he still has an opportunity, with a chance, to showcase his ability and see where he\u2019s at. I\u2019m all for it,\u201d Monken said.<\/p>\n
Sanders also got kudos for his offseason progress after an eventful rookie season. The much-hyped fifth-round pick started the final seven games, going 3-4 with seven touchdown passes, 10 interceptions and a 68.1 passer rating, while struggling at times with footwork and learning the playbook.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Shedeur\u2019s come miles in terms of his progressions, getting the ball out, his understanding of concepts. I think he\u2019s really, really come a long way,\u201d Monken said.<\/p>\n
One thing Monken wasn\u2019t pleased about with any of his quarterbacks was interceptions or missed passes during some of the team drills.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, we threw interceptions in seven-on-seven, for God\u2019s sake. I mean, who does that? There\u2019s no pass rush. I mean, it\u2019s embarrassing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite a new head coach and defensive coordinator, AP Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett is not expected to be at any of the Browns\u2019 practices until the mandatory minicamp begins on June 9. Monken said he has not yet met face-to-face with Garrett, who set the NFL\u2019s single-season sack record last year with 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEREA, Ohio (AP) \u2014 Todd Monken reiterated two points about the quarterback competition between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,120574,85,54,2337,32198,563,7,6,27878,27876,27877,10779,17,23813,7872],"class_list":["post-896800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-browns","tag-browns","tag-browns-watson-sanders-monken","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-clevelandbrowns","tag-denzel-boston","tag-deshaun-watson","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40806-ap-ohio-sports-only","tag-ronnie-hickman","tag-shedeur-sanders","tag-todd-monken","tag-tyson-campbell"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116609557698054102","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896800","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=896800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}