BEREA — The incessant quarterback talk isn’t going away anytime soon.
Todd Monken reiterated Saturday he will take his time in naming a starting quarterback.
In fact, in his eyes, the competition between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson won’t really get going until the eight days of offensive installations are complete next week. He amended an earlier claim that he wasn’t even evaluating the quarterbacks.
“We are evaluating, but not to that extreme, nothing’s going to be decided over these install practices,” Monken said before the fourth practice of training camp. “We’re just getting it in, letting the guys compete, see where we’re at, that’s at all positions.
“Once we get further along in pads, the full install in, we get to compete against other people, that’s really when I’m going to be able to see it because I haven’t coached any of these four quarterbacks until now. I haven’t been around them. I don’t have any preconceived notions of who they’ve been or where they’re going. As we get further along we’ll have a better idea.”
He mentioned the preseason games and the joint practice against the Bills as key points in the competition. The preseason opener is Aug. 15 in Chicago, with Buffalo visiting Aug. 20 for practice and Aug. 22 for the second preseason game.
While media and fans scrutinize every throw and declare a daily winner, Monken is taking a more measured approach. He critiques every completion and interception — Watson has thrown six picks in four practices and Sanders one — but also how the offense gets out of the huddle, the operation at the line of scrimmage and if the quarterback makes the right read.
“There’s a mental aspect of the operation. Does it look like you want it to look like?” Monken said. “And then there’s the physical part of it.”
Sanders said the defense provides “great looks every day,” which tests the quarterbacks.
“Reviewing all the film from last year and the mistakes I made, and just being able to recognize, have a better pre-snap and post-snap also,” he said.
The practice Saturday was heavy on red zone action. That led to the first touchdowns of camp and several noteworthy plays for the offense.
Browns Deshaun Watson with red zone TD to Cedric Tillman.
Next play was an INT. pic.twitter.com/2sFfvsAzg3— Scott Petrak ct (@ScottPetrak) August 1, 2026
https://platform.x.com/widgets.js
Sanders hit receiver Isaiah Bond in the back corner of the end zone and Jerry Jeudy on an out at the goal line. Watson found Cedric Tillman for a touchdown.
Andrew Berry says young roster not a ‘cop-out for expectation or performance’
The defense didn’t go down without a fight — there was one of those, too — as it totaled five interceptions, two by safety Christopher Edmonds. Monken said all picks aren’t created equal, and the situation must be taken into account.
“Now is the time to push the envelope in a lot of ways to see where they’re at,” he said. “We certainly don’t want the interceptions and too many of them are beyond being a teaching tool — at some point you’re like, ‘OK, I’m beyond being taught here. Stop throwing the ball to the other side.’
“But it is part of the process of just working through it, and interceptions are part of the game, unfortunately. Are we making the same mistakes, are we learning from that and moving on?”
Monken decided to alternate the first-team repetitions between Watson and Sanders on a daily basis. Watson got them Wednesday and Friday, and Sanders on Thursday and Saturday.
“It can be (tough), because it’s hard to build that rhythm,” Watson said of the daily switch. “But at the same time, as a quarterback you just try to lock in. You’ve got to be a leader out there and you’ve got to bring everybody to that standard, and you all have to play that way. So regardless of what group you’re in or who you’re in there with, you’ve got to make sure you execute at a high level.
“It’s definitely challenging, but at the same time, you can’t make that an excuse.”
Getting the first-team reps means going against the No. 1 defense. It’s flying around up front and in the secondary and has made life difficult for the offense.
Browns defense winning this red zone drill. Grant Delpit with a play. pic.twitter.com/Q57QQYHetz
— Scott Petrak ct (@ScottPetrak) August 1, 2026
https://platform.x.com/widgets.js
The daily matchups are also a factor in the quarterback evaluation.
“The most important thing is, from a process standpoint, how are we operating at the line of scrimmage, where are their eyes, have they taken command of the huddle, and then cadence and then understanding the concepts,” Monken said. “They’re all doing good, they’re all fine. All of our players are working through mistakes and fighting like hell to get better.”
Dillon Gabriel is third on the depth chart and is off to a strong start. Rookie Taylen Green is fourth. They’re getting a lot of reps with practice including simultaneous drills on two fields.
“All four are highly intelligent and want to be perfect, and they want to get us in the right play or protection,” Monken said. “At times they can try to be too perfect, and that creates anxiety at the line of scrimmage. We’ve got to get up, get down, run the play right, learn from our mistakes and then we can take it from there.
“(Friday) was our best day in terms of that, certain things not as good, but (Friday) there were a number of quarterback-controlled situations that they were exceptional at.”
Watson, 30, has been in the league since 2017 and started 72 games. Sanders, 24, is in Year 2 with seven starts. Sanders is trying to make up for that disadvantage.
“Obviously, Deshaun, based on his experience in the NFL, is going to have a little bit better grasp of what’s being asked of him just from an operational standpoint, from a cadence standpoint, from an offensive-system standpoint because there are still going to be some similarities from system to system,” Monken said. “Shedeur is just at the early stages of that. Every player works at a different speed or pace. It’s our job to, by the time they play, to really get them up to speed so they can play at a high level where they can play fast and that’s part of the system.”
