Todd Monken Breathes Life Into Deshaun Watson as Browns’ QB1

Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken told reporters at the NFL Combine on Wednesday, February 25 that it won’t be he who decides the team’s starting quarterback come Week 1.

Monken made it clear that the offense will enter preseason work with an open competition at the position. He also let media members know that he is open to Deshaun Watson winning back the job of QB1 if he earns it — regardless of the presence of Shedeur Sanders on the roster or any currently outside signal-callers the team brings in for a look.

“When you have a player that at one time has exhibited the skill set at an elite level, I think you’re always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we might be able to get that out of them again,” Monken said, per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “I’m gonna let it play out.”

Watson was a three-time Pro Bowler with the Houston Texans before Cleveland traded three first-round picks, plus several other mid-round draft assets, for him ahead of the 2022 campaign.

“Now, you’re gonna have some preconceived notions, obviously, because we have prior evidence,” Monken continued. “But I don’t decide who plays. The players decide who plays. I’ve never decided who plays.”

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Browns Have Nothing to Lose by Letting Deshaun Watson Compete for Starting QB Job

Watson is entering the fifth and final season of his five-year, $230 million contract and carries a salary cap hit of $80.7 million as of Tuesday evening, which is the highest in the NFL.

Cleveland could look to restructure the deal to bring that number down in 2026, though multiple restructures already have the Browns taking salary cap hits of nearly $26 million, $17 million and $8 million through 2027-29, respectively, when Watson is no longer under contract with the Browns and presumably won’t even be on the roster.

But cutting Watson either before June 1 or with a post-June 1 designation gets Cleveland exactly nothing, so Monken has zero to lose by giving the 30-year-old a chance to win the job.

Due to injury issues and a suspension from the league, Watson has started a total of 19 games for the Browns (9-10). He has completed 61.2 percent of his passes for 3,365 yards, 19 TDs and 12 INTs.

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Kyler Murray Predicted to Start Week 1 for Browns

If the team takes a big swing at quarterback and trades for a player like Kyler Murray or signs a free agent like Malik Willis, and assumes a considerable financial responsibility in the process, then the Browns are likely to try and knock down Watson’s cap hit to help pay for it in the immediate.

Seth Walder of ESPN predicted on Wednesday that Murray will ultimately start Week 1 in Cleveland.

“Though Murray’s play dropped off last season, he’s only one year removed from a 63.4 QBR in 2024, the ninth best that season,” Walder wrote. “Cleveland’s eternal search for a quarterback could lead it to Murray, especially with the draft lacking top-flight QB prospects beyond Fernando Mendoza.”

Walder also dismissed the notion that Sanders should get more time to figure it out as a starting NFL quarterback in 2026.

“Some might clamor to give Shedeur Sanders more development time, but I think that would be a mistake,” Walder continued. “A fifth-round pick whose 18.9 QBR would have been by far the worst in the league had he played enough to qualify ought to be considered the longest of shots, so the Browns should be pursuing other quarterback options.”

Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible