Browns head coach Todd Monken opened a Wednesday press conference by responding to a question about the team’s plans for their starting quarterback in their first two preseason games.
Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network reported on Tuesday that Monken told him either Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders would start the preseason opener against the Bears on August 15 and that the other one would start against the Bills on August 22. On Wednesday, Monken said that was not an entirely accurate representation of the team’s plans at this point.
“Basically talked about that the quarterbacks are gonna play in the preseason,” Monken said. “Obviously if it’s still a competition at that time, why wouldn’t you start one and start the other and then we would go from there. That was really what the conversation was. He wasn’t wrong in what we talked about, which you’ve all known that they’re gonna play in the preseason. Someone has to go out there for the first snap thus they would be the one that starts. At this point we’re so far from that, that it’s not really as important as what it got made out to be.”
Monken said that Watson and Sanders will continue rotating with the first team as long as the competition continues and gave no indication that there’s a specific date he has in mind to make a decision on a starter. It seems likely that both Watson and Sanders will wind up starting a preseason game if that continues for a few more weeks, but it’s not the sure thing it may have seemed on Tuesday.
