Todd Monken greets his Browns team as a whole for the first time at the opening of his offseason program on April 7. (TheLandOnDemand)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
PHOENIX, AZ
When Todd Monken opens his first Browns offseason conditioning program one week from Tuesday, the quarterbacks will notice a distinct change in their competition for the starting job compared to last year.
They will be presented a completely new playbook with different terminology, and different pass and run schemes from what they’ve been used to under Kevin Stefanski.
“Offensively, there's going to be a pretty big learning curve,” Monken said at NFL owners meetings on Tuesday.
And changes will continue when the quarterbacks take the field, officially, in Phase Two of the program starting with the third week.
Unlike Stefanski, who sought to divide practice reps among Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders close to evenly over two fields – well, except for Sanders, who never took reps with the first team -- Monken will have none of that circus.
“The reps can't be divided up evenly. There's no chance. At least on a daily basis,” Monken said.
The coach said he experienced a “four- or five-way competition” his first year as Georgia offensive coordinator and “that was not ideal.”
So while he has tabbed it an open competition between Deshaun Watson, Sanders and Gabriel, Monken said that on any given day one quarterback will take the majority of snaps. And then it could change the next day
“There's always competition irrespective of the number of reps a player gets,” Monken said. “The number of reps a player gets doesn't eliminate competition. It's just in a given day, let's say for instance, you want to see a quarterback with the first group, the second group, the third group. Well, are you going to divide those reps up evenly? Are you going to divide up the reps everywhere evenly? I don't see it that way. That doesn't mean there's not competition.
“How players compete, how they approach their job and their every day diligence, that's non-negotiable. But how we do things, the number of reps we get, that's an every day decision.”
Monken said he hopes to arrive at a QB depth chart for training camp by the conclusion of the eight-week, spring minicamp season. As to who gets the first crack to begin the competition, Monken said he would lean toward “what we’ve seen in the past and where the year ended last year.”
The 2025 season ended, of course, with Sanders starting the final seven games, winning the last two; with Gabriel as QB2 after recovering from a concussion in Game 10; and with Watson on an injury list after practicing for three weeks following a 412-day layoff recovering from a second Achilles tendon surgery in January of 2025.
So, does Sanders open the spring season first in line?
“I’m not ready to say that yet,” Monken said.
Sanders clearly has taken more initiative in forming a relationship with Monken in the two months since Monken was hired than Watson and Gabriel.
Sanders has been a frequent visitor to the Browns facility during this period when the NFLPA frowns on player involvement with coaches and teams. Sanders presented Monken with a porcelain horse head as a gift on the coach’s 60th birthday on February 5.
(Monken said he’s displaying the horse head between two Browns helmets in his office. Monken said, “If Deshaun gave me an elephant, then I'd have the elephant up there as well.”)
Monken said of Sanders, “It's been great that he's been in the building. It's refreshing to see a player that recognizes where he's at and where he wants to get to.”
The coach said he hasn’t seen Gabriel, who’s from Hawaii, in the building and hasn’t spoken to him. He has spoken to Watson once, he said.
On Monday, owner Jimmy Haslam spoke glowingly about Watson and the prospect of this competition being a “fresh start” and a “great chance” for Watson to reclaim his starting job in the final year of his Browns contract.
“I dated my wife for five years before we decided to get married. So one day's not enough,” Monken said of his interaction so far with Watson. “I will say two weeks isn't enough, two months isn't enough. It's a process.”
Monken seemed to be aware of fan backlash toward Watson re-taking the field after missing 49 games in four seasons with the Browns.
“I will just say this: We're excited to have him,” Monken said. “We're excited to see what he has. He's part of our roster. Anybody that's part of our roster, it's our job as coaches to try and get the most out of him. Why isn't that obvious? I don't understand it at all.”
On other topics, Monken:
* Professed the hope of incorporating a fullback into his offense.
He utilized 300-pound fullback Patrick Ricard extensively in short-yardage situations with the Ravens. “I think it's helpful in all the areas where you have to run the football,” Monken said. “We're going to look for any player that we think gives us an opportunity to run the football at a high level.”
* Re-upped his commitment to running the ball when speaking about offensive line coach George Warhop and offensive coordinator Travis Switzer, who was Ravens run game coordinator the past three seasons.
“George and I are aligned, as Travis and all of us are, in terms of who we want as our offensive line coach [and their style of play]. And that is to be able to run the football and make them deal with us. And that's an old-school mentality and that's what we want.”
* Specified what he’s looking for in a wide receiver.
“It's real simple,” he said. “Big, fast, physical ball skills. Run after catch. I mean, of course, that's what everybody's looking for. But I do think [at] any position [you’re] looking for what is a players elite trait? How can you continue to develop and round out the rest of their game and how does it fit into what you want to do offensively?”
* Said he will conduct a three-day “voluntary” minicamp on the week of the draft (possibly on April 20-22).