NFL insider gives latest stance on Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback battle between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders following mandatory minicamp
The Cleveland Browns wrapped up mandatory minicamp with no answer on the starting quarterback. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler gave his latest take on where things stand Monday.
We’re past mandatory minicamp and the next time the Cleveland Browns have the team all together in Northeast Ohio they’ll be starting preparation for the real thing with training camp.
Through mandatory minicamp, all eyes were on the quarterback battle between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders, just like they will be for training camp when a decision will be made.
We won’t have much development around the QB job until training camp gets back. However, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler’s latest take is exactly why the Browns couldn’t name Watson the starter.
“I still think Deshaun Watson is pretty well positioned here, but I do believe Shedeur had a good enough spring where he closed the gap some,” Fowler stated recently.
Shedeur Sanders’ improvements have made the Browns’ QB job a battle
When Browns head coach Todd Monken took the job he said he’d like to have a starter named coming out of OTAs, which didn’t happen. Sanders’ improvement and Watson’s inability to run away with the job have made this a close competition that’ll likely go on for a couple of weeks into the preseason.
“I think he’s being more decisive. Now, it’s easy to say we’re not in pads. It just feels like he’s making quicker decisions,” Monken said last week. “The ball’s coming out of his hands, which he’s gonna have to do.”
Not that he doesn’t have playmaking ability, because he does, but his ability to process quicker and get the ball out of his hands and eliminate lost yardage plays is going to be huge for us to be able to stack plays and score, which is ultimately the number one thing here.”
Sanders struggled with turning the ball over last season and had 10 interceptions in seven starts. Still, the former fifth-round pick did show some promise at times with seven touchdown passes, and the team was 3-4 record-wise when he was starting.
Monken is going to go with whichever player gives him the best chance to win the job, it’s as simple as that. The Browns’ head coach can’t pack it in for a season or else he won’t be around in the future. Cleveland is a team needing to show a step forward after going 5-12 a year ago.
Training camp will ramp up at the end of July and much of the attention will be on the battle between Watson and Sanders. The second-year player has made it close, we’ll see if he can take the job over before Week 1 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.