The Cleveland Browns hired Todd Monken as their new head coach on Wednesday, January 28, which may mean a new starting quarterback come next season.
Shedeur Sanders finished the year as the starter under Kevin Stefanski and will likely enter training camp as at least an option for the QB1 role under Monken. But the former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator has spoken publicly in the past about one trait he values in a signal-caller above almost all others, and it isn’t something Sanders does particularly well.
“There are more and more athletic quarterbacks. There’s more spread,” Monken said in 2023 on his way into Baltimore, per Cleveland.com. “And the more spread you are and the more empty you are, it’s more fun if your guy is athletic. He can get you out of trouble. He can buy yards.”
“In the Super Bowl, I think [Patrick] Mahomes had 40 yards [rushing] with a bad ankle, and [Jalen Hurts] had 70,” Monken continued. “Well, that’s hidden yardage. That’s auxiliary yards. It gets you out of trouble, because you’re rarely going to be perfect in protections.”
Todd Monken Coached Lamar Jackson With Ravens for Past 3 Years
GettyQuarterback Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens.
Monken coached two-time MVP Lamar Jackson for the last three years as the OC in Baltimore, who is among the league’s best, most effective and most prolific scramblers.
Jackson put up north of 800 and 900 yards per season in Monken’s first two years on the job, respectively, averaging more than 50 yards rushing per game in both campaigns. Those numbers dipped in 2025 due to nagging injuries that held Jackson out of four contests and hampered him across several others.
Sanders has some quality instincts as a rusher from the QB position, but he is far from elite at it. He ran the football 21 times for 169 yards (8.0 yards per attempt) and one TD in seven and a half games played during his rookie campaign. Sanders finished the year 3-4 as the starter with 1,400 passing yards, seven TDs, 10 INTs and a completion rate of 56.6 percent.
Upon learning the news that the Browns hired Monken on Wednesday, Sanders took to his Instagram account with a three-word response.
“Time for work,” Sanders wrote in a post to his IG story.
Packers QB Malik Willis Could Make Sense as Competition for Shedeur Sanders Next Season
GettyCleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken.
One interesting note: news broke early in the regular season that the Ravens contacted Sanders’ camp about drafting him on Day 3 last April. However, Sanders told them to pass as he didn’t want to play behind Jackson and preferred a better opportunity to start early in his career.
Monken wouldn’t necessarily have been the driver behind Baltimore’s interest in Sanders, but he certainly would have been a big part of the discussion alongside the front office and former Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, now the head coach of the New York Giants.
That said, Sanders ended up a fifth-round pick in Cleveland — a selection with which Monken was entirely unaffiliated. A majority of Browns fans appear to support Sanders, and his contract is so inexpensive it wouldn’t make sense to discard him after one season in which he showed flashes of real promise.
But Monken is undoubtedly going to look for competition in the QB room beyond Sanders, fellow 2025 draft pick Dillon Gabriel and Deshaun Watson entering the last year of his contract.
One name the Browns might consider is Malik Willis, currently the Green Bay Packers‘ backup QB and the N0. 2-ranked free-agent quarterback according to Matt Bowen of ESPN.
“With his dual-threat traits and positive signs of development in Green Bay, Willis is one of the top quarterbacks in free agency,” Bowen wrote Wednesday. “In four appearances (one start) this season, Willis completed 85.7% of his throws, rushed for 123 yards and scored four touchdowns. He’ll be signed to start somewhere this March.”
Browns’ Shedeur Sanders Gets Bad News as Todd Monken’s QB Preferences Resurface