Todd Monken made it known earlier this offseason that he hoped to identify a starting quarterback by the end of mandatory minicamp so that his players could enter training camp with a QB1.
But the Cleveland Browns’ head coach told reporters Tuesday at mandatory minicamp, just two days before his team’s offseason program wraps, that he’s still “not there yet.”
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“That's the reality of it,” Monken said, when explaining how the position battle between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders remains unresolved.
"I'm not going to name a No. 1 [by the end of mandatory minicamp]. So that I am not going to name,” Monken said.
Monken stopped himself.
"Chances are, I will not," he clarified.
He then continued: "Now, once we get to the fall, we'll have to dissect the reps how we see fit. I just don't see it after the way Shedeur's played and Deshaun's played. They've both played well enough to earn the right to compete to start."
Watson is a three-time Pro Bowler but hasn’t received that recognition since the 2020 season. Sanders started the team’s final seven games during the 2025 campaign. The former Colorado star helped the Browns collect three of their five wins, except he posted more interceptions than touchdown passes and a sub-60% completion percentage along the way.
While Monken noted during voluntary minicamp in April that he wouldn’t consider the QB competition “a two-man race,” he said last week amid OTAs that he believes the Browns have “two starting-level quarterbacks.”
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Dillon Gabriel is the odd man out. Gabriel, who starred at UCF, Oklahoma and Oregon, was drafted before Sanders last year and got a crack at the Browns’ top gig before Sanders, too. A third-round pick, he started six games as a first-yea pro but didn’t run away with the job prior to suffering a concussion that thrust Sanders into the lineup.
Aside from Gabriel, the only other player on Cleveland’s QB depth chart is rookie Taylen Green, a sixth-rounder who needs time to develop at the position yet oozes with athleticism.
"I would have hoped [to name a starter], but I like both of them," Monken said Tuesday of Watson and Sanders. "I don't know what to say. It's really as simple as that. I like both of them, and we haven't had the pads on. That's the hard thing. As much as I'd love to have made that decision, either by someone separating themselves upward or downward, either way, which has not occurred, and we haven't even gotten to practicing against an opponent, putting the pads on, having a controlled scrimmage or playing preseason games.
“I would have loved to — I was being honest. I think you'd love to have the starter named. I just can't do it.”