Todd Monken’s Preseason Week 2 Plans Could Be Bad News for Shedeur Sanders

Even though the Cleveland Browns aren’t coming out and saying it just yet, it sure feels like that's all she wrote for the notoriously questionable quarterback competition held over the past few months between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders.

With head coach Todd Monken sharing his plans for the week after outlining what the joint practice with the Buffalo Bills should look like, it's likely Sanders won't get the chance to start a preseason game with the rest of the Browns’ starters after all, negating him the same opportunity Watson just had for the preseason opener.

According to Monken: “Well, we both [along with Bills’ head coach Joe Brady] talked about, if we see out of our ones, our group, our older players, what we wanna see on Thursday, they would not play in the game. We agreed upon that.”

Todd Monken said the Browns’ starters will get extensive action in Thursday’s joint practice against the Bills’ starters.

Monken said he and Buffalo coach Joe Brady agreed that if they get what they want out of the practice, they won’t play the starters in the preseason game. pic.twitter.com/TUY05BIaeW
— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) August 17, 2026

Monken’s recent comments feel like a big departure from what he was trying to sell earlier regarding the quarterback competition, when he stated “As long as we're still sharing reps, it's a competition," right after taking some of Sanders’ reps with the starters away in favor of Watson, by altering the practicing rotation a little over a week ago.

“The plan is, we’ll play our ones a significant amount against each other on Thursday in a controlled environment," said Monken on Monday. "Not that the other guys aren’t gonna get reps, but a controlled environment, and see where we’re at. "

Yesterday, Monken stated that Sanders would get work with the first unit on Monday and Wednesday, with Watson getting Tuesday and Thursday -- which is of course, the day of the joint session with Buffalo -- before adding in that “Thursday’s really both.”

However, if Monken doesn’t alter his rotation during the week, Watson will be the true starter on Thursday for what seems to be the last chance for all the starters to play/practice together against a rival team for the rest of the preseason. If all goes according to Monken’s plan, starters won’t play Game 2, and likely not see any action in Game 3 of the preseason, either.

What does no starters for Game 2 of the preseason mean for Shedeur Sanders?

This situation puts Sanders in a clear disadvantage, no matter how many reps he does get with the starters during Thursday’s joint practice, and that’s assuming he’ll get an even split with Watson, which might not be the case anyway. Sanders would now be slated to start preseason Game 2 and play the full first half, yes, but with the Browns backups against the Bills backups.

Preserving the starters when it’s Sander’s turn to open a game seems like a clear indication that, any moment now, Watson will be named the Browns’ Week 1 starter for the regular season.

For everything that the Browns' promised out of their "open" quarterback competition, turns out it's not quite what it was pumped up to be.

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