The Browns veered off script for Saturday’s practice when they gave Deshaun Watson the first-team reps at practice after saying it would be Shedeur Sanders’s day to work with that unit, but head coach Todd Monken said at a Monday press conference that nothing has changed in terms of the competition being open.
Monken said that Sanders worked with the first team during a walkthrough ahead of Saturday’s practice and that they went with Watson to balance out the total number of reps with the first team. Monken said Sanders is slated to get that role in Monday’s practice “unless I change my mind on the way out” and that the job remains up for grabs.
“As long as we’re still sharing reps, it’s a competition,” Monken said.
The Browns play their first preseason game on Saturday and Monken said that they haven’t picked a starter for that game. He said the current plan is for both players to start one of the first two games this month.
“After those two games, we’ll be closer to at least having a better idea,” Monken said.
The Browns also have a joint practice with the Bills next week and that will provide more competitive reps for the Browns to use to finally select their quarterback for Week 1.
Browns Clips
The Browns have been rotating quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders with the first team from day to day at training camp, so any deviation from that schedule is sure to grab attention.
Such a deviation came on Saturday. Head coach Todd Monken said before practice that it would be Sanders working with the first team, but multiple reporters shared that Watson received all of the work with the first team.
Monken did not speak to the media after practice. A team spokesman said, via multiple reporters, that Monken changed the plans because he wanted to see Watson with certain personnel groups.
Earlier this week, Monken clarified a report that both quarterbacks will get a start in the preseason by saying that “if it’s still a competition at that time, why wouldn’t you start one and start the other” without targeting any date for the competition to end. The Browns play their first preseason game next Saturday, so the identity of the first guy up as the starter should come early in the week.
The Browns plucked a defensive lineman off of the waiver wire on Friday.
They announced the addition of defensive tackle Patrick Jenkins to the roster. They had opened up a roster spot earlier in the day by placing offensive lineman Kendrick Green on injured reserve.
Jenkins was let go by the Jets on Thursday and he was in training camp with the Cardinals last summer. He also spent some time on the Falcons’ practice squad late in the regular season.
Jenkins played for Columbus in the UFL this spring. He had 22 tackles, six tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in 10 games.
The Browns announced a handful of roster moves on Friday.
Guard Kendrick Green has been placed on injured reserve, which means he’ll either spend the whole season on the list or get released with an injury settlement once he’s on track to return to action. Green played one game for the Browns last season and played in 36 games for the Steelers and Texans earlier in his career.
The Browns also announced that they have signed offensive lineman Jack Conley and cornerback Jeadyn Lukus. Conley was on the practice squad in Cleveland last season and Lukus was waived by the Titans last weekend.
Wide receiver Jamari Thrash and linebacker Reid Carrico were waived to round out the Friday morning moves for the Browns.
For a decade, Hall of Famer Joe Thomas anchored the Browns’ offensive line at left tackle.
With training camp ongoing, Thomas has been at the facility this week to assist with coaching the rebuilt group at the behest of head coach Todd Monken.
Monken revealed to reporters after Thursday’s practice that he offered Thomas a full-time job after he was hired in January.
“Well, when I was interviewing for the job and then when I got the job, I reached out to Joe,” Monken said in his press conference. “Joe, obviously, played for [offensive line coach] George Warhop as well. And I said, hey, we’ve got a spot for you if you want to help us coach. And he said, ‘I’d love to coach.’ He said, ‘I don’t think I want to commit to an everyday contract.’ I said, ‘That’s fine. Anytime you want to come out and help our guys, you’re more than welcome.’ And we certainly would welcome him.”
With the Browns bringing in offensive tackle Spencer Fano with the No. 9 overall pick of this year’s draft, Thomas likely had some useful pointers for the rookie to excel as he begins his first season.
The forgotten man in the Cleveland quarterback rotation is forcing himself into the conversation by performing well in practice. But Dillon Gabriel has yet to officially enter the competition to win the starting quarterback job with the Browns.
Does he feel disrespected by that?
“Never disrespected,” Gabriel told reporters on Wednesday. “I don’t take things personally, it’s a business. I’m focused on what I need to do to get better, and that’s all I’m focused on. I’m present with that.”
Gabriel also was asked whether he believes earning more reps gives him a chance to seize the job.
“I’m really just focused on mastering my reps,” Gabriel said. “I really appreciate [pass game coordinator] Danny Bryer and [senior director of player development] James Cook. James Cook and [offensive skill development specialist] Demetric Felton are big on walkthroughs in the morning, which helps set me up for a good day. And afterwards with Danny Bryer, a guy I’ve really leaned on, getting coached up — three or five reps, talking through it as best I can and improving. And same with [assistant quarterbacks] coach [Matt] Baker, he’s been really good for me.”
Contributing to the perception that Gabriel is an afterthought is the manner in which he was strong-armed into giving up No. 8 to Jared Verse. Dillon was asked about his new number, 6.
“Yeah, I don’t really care about numbers,” Gabriel said. “My freshman year in high school, I remember I got pulled up to varsity wearing 96. . . . No, no attachment to any numbers. There may be some cool things to certain numbers that everyone tells themselves once they get a new number, but for the most part it’s just a number.”
That’s the right attitude. Although some players believe their number becomes part of their identity, it’s simply a mechanical feature allowing the officials and the opponent to more easily track the player. There’s no real reason to become emotionally invested in it.
Players change teams. When they do, they change uniforms. Changing the number on a uniform is no different. For Gabriel, the far more important number is the one he’ll eventually be assigned on the depth chart.
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.
Just before the Browns started training camp, wide receiver Jerry Jeudy found himself going viral on social media for something he didn’t do.
A video showing Jeudy putting up four fingers was portrayed as him answering a question about who he thinks should be the team’s quarterback by favoring Deshaun Watson, but, as noted at the time, the video was clearly edited and Jeudy responded by writing that he doesn’t “speak on decisions that aren’t mine to make.”
Jeudy addressed the video again at a Thursday press conference and said that whoever made the video edited out a section including his daughter. Jeudy said he held up the four fingers to answer a question during a livestream about how old his daughter is and that the video’s editing “made it into something” it wasn’t.
“I’ve been in the league for seven years. At least five or six of those years, there’s always been a quarterback competition within those years,” Jeudy said. “I think I was mature enough, wise enough to not answer questions like that. For anyone to believe I would answer like that on social media is kinda wild. You gotta understand this is what we in and understand how everybody viewing the quarterback competition in this room, so every little thing’s going to try to turn it into that. . . . I don’t even answer quarterback questions in here, why would I answer quarterback questions on TikTok?”
Jeudy said he spoke to Watson and Shedeur Sanders directly to tell them he wasn’t discussing their competition and that the entire episode reinforced his feeling that “nothing’s real” on social media. There are no shortage of examples inside and outside of football to back up that view and there will inevitably be more of them despite admonitions from Jeudy or anyone else to treat it with skepticism.
Browns coach Todd Monken originally hoped to name a starting quarterback by the offseason program. That didn’t happen, with the competition continuing into training camp.
Monken finally has revealed his timeline for a decision.
He told Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network that Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson will each start a preseason game. The next week will determine who starts Aug. 15 at Chicago and who starts the Aug. 22 home game against the Bills.
The leader likely starts the final preseason game on Aug. 27 against the Patriots.
Watson has played only 19 games since arriving in Cleveland in 2022. He hasn’t played since October of 2024, twice tearing his Achilles since.
Sanders earned Pro Bowl honors as a rookie despite starting only seven games and completing 56.6 percent of his passes for 1,400 yards, with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Before Eagles defensive end A.J. Epenesa landed in Philadelphia, he had a one-year deal worth up to $5 million in place with the Browns. Until he didn’t.
The Browns pulled out of the agreement, due to concerns regarding his physical.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Epenesa didn’t want to say much about the Browns. He made it clear that he’s happy to be with the Eagles.
“Cleveland, you know, it was a weird situation,” Epenesa told reporters. “But I don’t necessarily want to go back and talk on that in just a weird sense but I’ll just leave that in the past and just be happy that I’m not a Brown and that I’m an Eagle.”
Is Epenesa healthy now?
“Very healthy,” he said, “feeling good, and happy to be here.”
His contract with the Eagles pays much less than his contract with the Browns would have entailed — one year, $1.402 million.
A second-round pick in 2020, Epenesa spent his first six seasons with the Bills.
