Above all else, new Browns coach Todd Monken wants to turn the team into a winner. The first four games of the season (at Jaguars, at Buccaneers, vs. Panthers, vs. Steelers) will make winning out of the gates a challenge.
And so the goal will be to put the best starting lineup together to start the season. The biggest question mark applies to the quarterback position, where Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders continue to compete for the job.
In advance of the announcement of the configuration of the depth chart, it’s fair to look for clues. Monken may have provided one on Tuesday.
Monken said that, with the Bills and Browns due to engage in a joint practice this week, the mutual plan is to get the starters work in a more controlled environment, and to not play them during Saturday’s game. So with Sanders due to start this weekend, does that mean he’s not a starter?
If the competition truly hasn’t been privately resolved, wouldn’t Monken want to give Shedeur a full and fair chance to run the first-team offense? Wouldn’t that provide the closest thing to an apples-to-apples comparison between Watson’s Week 1 start and Sanders’s opportunity in Week 2?
As Simms and I discussed on Tuesday’s PFT Live, the strongest hint will come from the Saturday quarterback plan after Sanders. If Watson doesn’t play with second- and third-stringers on the field, that points to the possibility that Monken has already decided Watson will be the Week 1 starter.
It also points to the possibility that Monken is slow-playing the announcement, because picking Watson over Sanders will not be the popular move. Sanders won’t like it. His throng of online fans will hate it. His father, Deion, may have something to say about it, privately and/or publicly. And plenty of Browns fans don’t want Watson playing at all — they want to find out what Shedeur can become.
Still, if Monken believes Watson gives the Browns the best chance to steal a win or two against three playoff teams and a Tampa Bay squad that will be determined to get off to a great start in its regular-season home opener vs. Cleveland, Watson will get a chance to prove himself through a pair of road games before the Browns open their home slate with a Sunday game against the Panthers and a Thursday night showdown with the Steelers.
Either way, pay attention to what happens on Saturday. How will Sanders perform without the starters? And will the plan to put Watson in the game after Sanders suddenly change?
Browns Clips
The Browns brought a new wide receiver into the fold on Tuesday morning.
They announced that they have signed Ben Patterson to their 90-man roster. He will take the spot of guard Jack Conley, who the Browns waived in a corresponding move.
Patterson signed with the Jaguars after going undrafted out of Texas-Permian Basin this year. He had 32 catches for 678 yards and five touchdowns during the 2025 season. He had 16 overall touchdowns during his time in college.
Conley was on the Browns’ practice squad last year and has slipped on and off the roster over the course of this offseason.
After a flirtation with returning to Cleveland, veteran defensive end Za’Darius Smith has decided to go to Atlanta instead.
Smith has signed a one-year deal with the Falcons, the team announced this morning.
The signing comes a day after Smith worked out for the Falcons, news that came as a surprise because there had been reports he would sign with the Browns. Smith apparently liked the Falcons’ offer better, and they might have increased their offer as a result of losing two defensive ends this month: James Pearce Jr. was suspended for eight games by the NFL, and Jalon Walker suffered a season-ending knee injury on August 4.
Smith previously played for Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland in 2023 and 2024.
Last year Smith signed a one-year, $9 million contract with the Eagles, only to leave the team after five games and announce his retirement. But now he has decided to return to the field. And he’ll give the Falcons the depth at defensive end they needed.
Browns right defensive end Jared Verse and left tackle Spencer Fano have been going head-to-head throughout training camp, including one matchup that turned into a fight, with Verse ripping Fano’s helmet off and taking him to the ground, then Fano reversing and getting on top of Verse before teammates stepped in. Verse loved it.
Verse told reporters he gained respect for Fano for the way Fano fought back against him, and Verse think that’s just what the Browns need.
“I think fighting’s necessary when it comes to football,” Verse said. “I’m very disrespectful when it comes to the way I compete, especially when I try to drive my teammates to another level. So I wouldn’t expect him any less than to retaliate because that’s the type of player he is.”
Verse, the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year who arrived in Cleveland in the Myles Garrett trade this year, said he is seeing rapid improvement in Fano, whom the Browns selected with the ninth overall pick in this year’s draft.
“Going against him, he’s gotten so much better these past couple weeks,” Verse said. “In the time we’ve been together he’s gotten so much better, and because he’s getting better, he’s getting to the point where I’m starting to learn things from him, I’m learning my tendencies and what he’s picking up on, so it’s making me a better player as well.”
Fano comes to every practice ready to battle with Verse, and Verse loves that about his rookie teammate.
“A lot of rookies would go against me, against top edges in the league, and back down, be a little nervous, be a little timid, but he’s never shown that,” Verse said.
The Browns are counting on Verse and Fano to be two of the key pieces in their rebuilding effort. Verse thinks some practice-field fights now could be setting the team up to have something to celebrate down the road.
The Falcons worked out veteran pass rusher Za’Darius Smith on Monday, according to the NFL’s personnel notice.
Smith was expected to sign with the Browns, but apparently was enticed to head to Atlanta. The Falcons won’t have James Pearce Jr. for eight games because of a suspension, and Jalon Walker will miss the entire season after tearing an ACL on Aug. 4.
Smith, who turns 34 next month, signed with the Eagles last September before announcing his retirement in October. The Eagles cut him from their reserve/retired list earlier this year.
Smith had 10.5 sacks in 25 games for the Browns in 2023 and 2024 before they traded him to the Lions. Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski was the head coach in Cleveland when Smith played there.
Smith has also played for the Ravens, Packers and Vikings while totaling 70.5 career sacks.
He is a three-time Pro Bowler, the most recent coming in 2022.
Shedeur Sanders will get the start at quarterback against the Bills in the Browns’ second preseason game, but he may not have many other first-stringers in the lineup with him.
The Browns will have a joint practice with the Bills on Thursday and Browns head coach Todd Monken said at a Monday press conference that he and Bills head coach Joe Brady had a conversation about how they would handle that session. Monken said that the plan is for both teams to use their starters in the joint practice and then keep them on the bench Saturday.
“We both talked about that if we see out of our ones, our group, our older players what we want to see on Thursday, they would not play in the game,” Monken said. “We agreed upon that. The plan is that we’ll play our ones a significant amount against each other on Thursday in a controlled environment. Not that the other guys aren’t going to get reps, but in a controlled environment and see where we’re at.”
Deshaun Watson started for the Browns in their first preseason game and is set to play the third quarter this week. Monken said will happen regardless of how Thursday’s work goes, but added “as we speak right now” when discussing all of the quarterback plans for the coming days.
The Browns have made a pair of moves at tight end.
Cleveland announced on Monday that the club has signed Jermaine Terry.
Terry, 23, entered the league last year as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon State, signing with the Giants. He did not make New York’s 53-man roster.
As a corresponding move, the Browns have waived Brenden Bates with an injury designation.
After Deshaun Watson started against the Bears on Saturday, Browns head coach Todd Monken detailed how he’ll divide the QB reps between Watson and second-year signal-caller Shedeur Sanders on Sunday.
Monken said Cleveland will have a joint practice with Buffalo on Thursday before the two clubs face off in a preseason game on Saturday. Sanders is slated to start that game.
“I think we’re going to go Shedeur on Monday and Wednesday, and Deshaun [on] Tuesday and Thursday, but Thursday is really both,” Monken said in his Sunday video conference, via transcript from the team. “I’m meeting with [Bills head coach] Joe Brady here, at four, we’re trying to get blocks set up and run-downs so we can get 16 plays where maybe we go five with the ones, three with the twos, five with the ones, three with the twos, which means both quarterbacks get five reps in each block. Run-downs, pass-downs, red zone, two-minute, those kinds of things we’re going to work through in 27 minutes.”
With Sanders in particular, Monken said the quarterback has “improved so much,” but there still is room to get better.
“I mean he really has in terms of climbing the pocket and working through his progressions. Even on the one he threw to 81 [Luke Floriea] in the slot, like he drifted too deep,” Monken said. “We caught him in the blitz, but they weren’t even close. He created some of his own pressure. There are things, and operational, it’s still a part of it: getting in the huddle, getting lined up, getting the call. So does Deshaun. They’re both in the same manner, so we can stack plays together. We did a good job. Maybe the most positive thing we did was we overcame some penalties — we overcame a first-and-25, we overcame a couple other penalties, and we hit that big third-and-13 that Shedeur did. So how can we play cleaner at all positions, and certainly with him, how can he play cleaner?”
The Browns will look to see that against the Blls next Saturday.
It looks like Za’Darius Smith is headed back to the Browns.
Smith worked out for the team earlier this week and Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports that he is expected to sign with the team as early as Sunday.
The veteran defensive end signed with the Eagles last September, but announced his retirement in October. The Eagles released him from their reserve/retired list earlier this year.
Smith had 10.5 sacks in 25 games for the Browns in 2023 and 2024 before being traded to the Lions. He’s also played for the Ravens, Packers and Vikings while compiling 70.5 career sacks.
Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders badly overthrew his intended receiver on an interception against the Bears on Saturday, but he said the important thing was how he read the defense.
Sanders spotted an open Browns receiver Malachi Corley for what should have been a big gain downfield, but he threw the ball over Corley’s head and into the arms of Bears cornerback Beanie Bishop. Sanders said after the game he was glad he saw Corley.
“What’d I see? The right read, just slipped. It was the right read, it just slipped,” Sanders said. “That’s what makes me mad a little bit. But any decision I make, I know is the right decision, I just didn’t execute the decision, but the right decision was made. So every day I look at my decision making. How’s my decision-making? That’s how I grade myself. Obviously turning the ball over is not great and I won’t survive a long time in the league doing that, but as long as my eyes and my feet and everything were in the right place, being able to execute, it just may happen.”
Sanders remains in a quarterback competition with Deshaun Watson. Neither of them played well enough against the Bears to win the job just yet.
