‘Clock is ticking’ on Browns to make a QB decision
Mike Florio and Chris Simms dive into the Browns' quarterback competition and react to Todd Monken's comments about the battle between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson.
Video Transcript
Pft Live, Tuesday edition, August 11.
There are multiple significant quarterback competitions- as the preseason approaches.
And it's really down to three.
Before the season, I had flagged five teams, Vikings, Browns, Falcons, Cardinals, Raiders.
Cardinals because we didn't know whether they were gonna pay Jameis Winston, and what happens if he holds in, who's the quarterback gonna be almost by default.
Yeah.
With the Raiders, I thought that maybe there would be an opportunity for Nan, for Fernando Mendoza to show what he can do, and maybe rally some support from the veterans.
That looks like it's not gonna happen.
But the other three are still going, and the two that seem to be generating the most headlines are Cleveland and Minnesota.
And what happened over the weekend in Cleveland, Shedeur Sanders was gonna get first team reps on Saturday, and then they made a change.
Yeah.
And that made people think that, uh-oh, Deshaun Watson is possibly in the lead.
And Todd Monken continues, whether he truly feels that way or not, he continues to publicly paint the picture of an ongoing competition.
Here he is from yesterday on this battle between Sanders and Watson.
Did you come away with sort of the feeling that the quarterback competition's still sort of even Steven and anybody could still run away with this thing?
Well, run away is a stretch.
Okay.
But I've been impressed with both players and the way they've handled, right, the back and forth of the reps. And we're trying as best we can to balance the reps so we give both of them an opportunity to showcase their skill set.
It's never gonna be perfect, and they've handled that great.
But even the last week or so, Deshaun has played better.
He has played better, he's looked better, he's made better decisions.
And I think some of that grows, like all of us, as they have success, right?
Their confidence gonna grow with the success that they have every day.
Hey, look, that's fine, and we like Todd Monken, but the clock is ticking.
The regular season's coming.
At some point, you gotta pick a guy.
At some point, you gotta get that guy ready.
And it's nice to say, "Well, you know, they've settled into this routine and this rhythm of splitting reps," but neither of them is gonna be as ready as they can be for the games that count if we continue to dilute the first team reps that they're getting.
So, I don't know what, when, or who it's gonna be.
I went from thinking early in the off-season program it's Deshaun Watson rebirth, and then it's like, well, you know what, maybe they're just using that to try to motivate Shedeur Sanders.
We get to camp, I think it's gonna be Shedeur Sanders.
Now, I don't know, is it gonna be Deshaun Watson?
Meanwhile, Dillon Gabriel potentially could, in theory, steal the whole thing if neither of them runs away with it.
That's the key.
I think coaches wanna see somebody run away with it, and it isn't happening in Cleveland or Minnesota or Atlanta.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, he wants to say to you and I, "Well, I can't just pick a guy just because we wanna frame our team," even though neither one of them's really taken the bull by the horns and taken the lead, right?
So he's gotta wait for it a little bit.
And I think that's what you said.
That's the sense I get just talking to a few people too about it, is like you just said, Deshaun Watson went into training camp, I think, with the lead.
I think they went through it, and then especially last week, if you listen to people and reports, it sounds like Deshaun Watson really struggled.
I mean, he basically told you that right there.
That was the most telling part of the whole interview.
And him to going, you know, even last week, Deshaun, you know, he has played better.
That's a b- good way of saying he was playing like shit, and now he's playing a little better.
So, that's what he just told you there in coach speak.
He looks better.
Fair line.
He looks better 'cause he didn't look good.
His decisions are better because they weren't good.
And that's the, that's what I heard from Mary Kay Cabot and other people last week.
So I think, yeah, Deshaun, Deshaun might've gone into camp in the le- as the leader, but Shedeur has closed the gap, and I think continues to close the gap, and continues to make the majority of the big plays in training camp.
And Deshaun, what was it Saturday or Sunday where he had the seven touchdowns in the red zone?
That was the first time you heard like a, a landmark type of day for Deshaun Watson, and that's probably what he's talking about with the better decisions and all that.
But yeah, I think, Mike, it's, it's, it's just too close to call, and they're gonna have to wait to see some pre- preseason action here, and let them go out there with, you know, live bullets and see how they react in those moments.
And I think, you know, ultimately, that's gonna give them another huge piece of information of where they wanna go here.
Monken said that they will each start one preseason game.
Yeah.
One for Sanders, one for Watson.
Haven't disclosed who starts which one, and then who knows what happens by the third preseason game.
Maybe the competition's over by then.
Maybe it's Dillon Gabriel time.
Maybe none of the starters are on the field.
Every team handles this, this still somewhat new preseason formula a little bit differently than others do
