Given that Berry and Monken (despite just being hired) could be on the hot seat if the 2026 season goes poorly, it makes sense that the decision-makers want to compete this season rather than focus solely on the future. If the future was the only variable, Sanders would have the starting position almost no matter what happened in training camp.<\/p>\n
It is, however, possible that the future is a part of why Watson seems to have taken control of the QB competition. Cleveland\u2019s offense is full of young players:<\/p>\n
Helping that core of players develop, along with being more competitive in 2026, could be the reason the veteran Watson, who has been better but not great at presnap activities, is the likely choice. For the Browns young guys to continue to develop, getting the process right is key. If the quarterback is unable to get the plays in, make the right audibles, slide the protections, and get the play off in time, that young group could learn bad habits, struggle to focus on their own details, and see their development set back.<\/p>\n
Should Sanders be the starting quarterback in Cleveland? In a vacuum, probably. He\u2019s young, cheap, and has some upside. If Sanders was the only focus, starting him at QB would make sense. If Sanders\u2019 struggles (Watson has his own after the snap) limit the growth of those six players listed above, the choice also becomes clear in the other direction.<\/p>\n
It seems like what Monken has prioritized as vital (presnap process) is not only leading to Watson\u2019s role as the Browns starter but also could be a way to focus on the future with the other key positions on offense. While the quarterback position is important, Cleveland\u2019s young core developing on offense is equally or more important in the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Maybe Berry and Monken are focused on the now (winning) and not yet (developing for the future), which could soon lead to Watson being announced as the Browns starting quarterback in 2026.<\/p>\n
How do you think the other young guys on offense could\/should impact the Browns QB competition? Do you think their development is one of the variables that the team is weighing with the QB decision?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Given that Berry and Monken (despite just being hired) could be on the hot seat if the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":969517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,91914,51955,2337,7,6],"class_list":["post-969516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-browns","tag-browns","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-cleveland-browns-analysis","tag-cleveland-browns-depth-chart","tag-clevelandbrowns","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117072192073280990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969516","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=969516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/969517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}