The Cleveland Browns fans who had been dying to see Shedeur Sanders play for months finally got their wish last Sunday when Sanders filled in for a concussed Deshaun Watson in a narrow 23-22 loss at the New Orleans Saints in overtime. He amassed 325 total yards and two touchdowns without turning the ball over, showing off some notable improvements compared to last year.
Watson is still the starter and will take over to try to get this team back on a winning path on Sunday when the Houston Texans come to town. That’s not to say that Sanders didn’t make a strong impression, and head coach Todd Monken had plenty of praise for his young quarterback even though he didn’t name him the permanent starter.
Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan shared a clip of Monken’s press conference on Wednesday and Monken touched on a recent CBS report that detailed how Sanders had a lot of input when it came to the playbook last Sunday. The report suggested that Sanders was suggesting plays that weren’t in the playbook, which Monken shut down.
“It’s hilarious that it has gone this far. It was fun. It was him and I together. It should be important what a quarterback likes and what he doesn’t like. It really isn’t a big deal,” Monken said.
Todd Monken was amused by the reaction to a report on CBS during the #Browns #Saints broadcast that Shedeur Sanders suggested concepts/plays not in their playbook to Monken when Sanders was asked what he’d like to/be comfortable running pic.twitter.com/tFvFYKXRj4
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) November 11, 2026
The important thing is that it sounds like Monken and Sanders have a strong rapport and did a good job putting together a game plan catered to Sanders’ strengths. He showed off some impressive improvement from last season, though he did miss some throws and take some sacks he didn’t need to take.
Overall, it was a positive showing and it was nice of Monken to shut down this report. Sanders naturally incites a lot of headlines both good and bad given his last name, but he has a coach who has his best interests at heart and is putting him in the best position to succeed even if he isn’t starting full-time.
It’s no surprise that that report was exaggerated and props to Monken for having his guy’s back.
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