The Cleveland Browns got smoked 31-7 by the Buffalo Bills on Saturday and have now been outscored 65-17 through the first two preseason games. Wins and losses don’t matter in the preseason, but for a team like the Browns with so much young talent and so many new faces in the organization, it would have been nice to see a little more production on both sides of the ball.
One of the few bright spots to come from Saturday’s performance was the job Shedeur Sanders did in his effort to sway the coaching staff to name him the Week 1 starter. He was 9-of-11 passing for 74 yards and the team’s only touchdown, though he did throw an interception that fortunately wasn’t nearly as rough as last week’s interception.
Head coach Todd Monken spoke about his young QB after the game and raved about how impressed he is with Sanders’ growth. Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan shared the clip and Monken sounds like he is extremely proud of his young QB and pointed out specific examples of his growth showing up on Saturday.
“There’s a lot there to like. He plays with a certain amount of confidence. He has gotten a lot better at getting rid of the ball. I thought he did a lot of really good things. I’m really proud of him and where he’s come from, from the moment I got here until now, very impressive,” said Monken.
Todd Monken impressed with and proud of Shedeur Sanders’ improvement this year #Browns pic.twitter.com/H5Yli5R1Pb
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) August 23, 2026
Monken’s honesty and emotion is refreshing after listening to Kevin Stefanski’s often monotonous and flat delivery during press conferences over the past few years. Monken is quick to praise his guys for the work they’re doing and never hesitates to call himself out as a coach.
His positive outlook on Sanders’ performance on Saturday is accurate. The interception obviously wasn’t ideal, but Monken stressed that the ball could have been caught and overall he believes Sanders did a great job getting the ball out and getting everyone involved.
All signs pointed toward Watson being the starter over the past few months, but with what happened on Saturday, including Watson’s postgame comments painting himself as the victim due to the fans loudly booing him, Sanders might have a better shot at winning this QB competition than most originally believed.
NEXT: Todd Monken Gets Honest About Preseason Loss To Bills
