Above all else, new Browns coach Todd Monken wants to turn the team into a winner. The first four games of the season (at Jaguars, at Buccaneers, vs. Panthers, vs. Steelers) will make winning out of the gates a challenge.
And so the goal will be to put the best starting lineup together to start the season. The biggest question mark applies to the quarterback position, where Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders continue to compete for the job.
In advance of the announcement of the configuration of the depth chart, it’s fair to look for clues. Monken may have provided one on Tuesday.
Monken said that, with the Bills and Browns due to engage in a joint practice this week, the mutual plan is to get the starters work in a more controlled environment, and to not play them during Saturday’s game. So with Sanders due to start this weekend, does that mean he’s not a starter?
If the competition truly hasn’t been privately resolved, wouldn’t Monken want to give Shedeur a full and fair chance to run the first-team offense? Wouldn’t that provide the closest thing to an apples-to-apples comparison between Watson’s Week 1 start and Sanders’s opportunity in Week 2?
As Simms and I discussed on Tuesday’s PFT Live, the strongest hint will come from the Saturday quarterback plan after Sanders. If Watson doesn’t play with second- and third-stringers on the field, that points to the possibility that Monken has already decided Watson will be the Week 1 starter.
It also points to the possibility that Monken is slow-playing the announcement, because picking Watson over Sanders will not be the popular move. Sanders won’t like it. His throng of online fans will hate it. His father, Deion, may have something to say about it, privately and/or publicly. And plenty of Browns fans don’t want Watson playing at all — they want to find out what Shedeur can become.
Still, if Monken believes Watson gives the Browns the best chance to steal a win or two against three playoff teams and a Tampa Bay squad that will be determined to get off to a great start in its regular-season home opener vs. Cleveland, Watson will get a chance to prove himself through a pair of road games before the Browns open their home slate with a Sunday game against the Panthers and a Thursday night showdown with the Steelers.
Either way, pay attention to what happens on Saturday. How will Sanders perform without the starters? And will the plan to put Watson in the game after Sanders suddenly change?