Shedeur Sanders finished last year as the Browns’ starting quarterback.
Could he keep that role for the start of the 2026 season?
“Sure he can,” Cleveland head coach Todd Monken said at the scouting combine on Wednesday. “I think what you see is elite playmaking ability — that’s in him. You’ve seen it, we’ve seen it. You saw it in college. You saw it on tape last year. Sure, there’s a ways to go, but what rookie isn’t? I mean, what first-year player doesn’t have a long way to go?
Advertisement
“So, I’m excited to get started with him and all of our quarterbacks and all of our players.”
Sanders is one of three quarterbacks under contract for 2026, with the others being fellow 2025 draftee Dillon Gabriel and Deshaun Watson. Monken noted that the Browns will do their “due diligence” in potentially bringing in another QB to compete for the role.
Monken characterized Cleveland’s current quarterback situation as an open competition. But he noted that he’d prefer to have the starting role settled by the time training camp starts.
“You would hope that that’s the case,” Monken said. “You would hope that by the time you get to training camp that the reps you’re giving to a quarterback is for your starter. Whether we get to that place, I don’t know. That will be determined in the offseason as part of it, just another part of the piece.”
In eight games with seven starts as a rookie, Sanders completed 59.6 percent of his passes for 1,400 yards with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions.