Todd Monken has to Choose What Timeline the Browns Are on at QB

The clutch gene must be contagious inside the Cleveland Browns locker room. 

All five of the team's wins have come via some sort of game-winning drive from veteran starter Deshaun Watson. With Watson sidelined in Week 9, though, it was Shedeur Sanders turn to deliver a dramatic moment of his own, with Cleveland trailing the New Orleans Saints 16-13 with 48 seconds to play. 

He did it, executing a brilliant seven-play, 41-yard drive that featured a seed-of-a-throw to Jerry Jeudy with pressure in his face to set up an Andre Szmyt 51-yard field goal. 

Then he did it again, after the Saints had marched 84 yards on the first drive of overtime to put a touchdown on the board and put the pressure back on Cleveland. Sanders answered with an eight-play, 72-yard TD drive, capped off by Harold Fannin Jr.'s 39-yard catch-and-run, in typical tackle-breaking fashion. 

With a minute to play, Todd Monken opted to go for two and the win. The play failed; the Browns lost, but despite the characters changing at quarterback, that classic Cleveland resiliency was on display once again. 

Those critical moments were some of the highs from Sanders on Sunday. The others came via a 60-yard go-ball to Denzel Boston in the third quarter that ultimately ended in a field goal and a similar bomb to KC Concepcion in the fourth quarter that the Texas A&M product broke turned into a 64-yard touchdown. 

There were plenty of lows as well. Cleveland's offense had mustered just 80 yards of total offense (38 through the air from Sanders) and had only picked up five first downs. Things were a little better after three quarters, thanks to the deep shot to Boston, but the offense was still largely stuck in the mud, disjointed and sloppy. 

In some respects, it felt awfully similar to the offense Browns fans had watched for the first eight weeks with Deshaun Watson under center. Ultimately, that may be the biggest takeaway from Sunday. Whether it's Watson or Sanders taking the snaps, this offense is wildly inconsistent and follows the same script of slow starts with exciting late-game magic. 

So if all things are equal no matter who is at quarterback, shouldn't the young guy get the nod because there's more upside there?

That may seem like an obvious answer, but it's not so simple for Todd Monken, who was adamant that he didn't want to talk about any quarterback decisions in the minutes after the game.

The QBs themselves are the story, but for Monken, it's really a choice about what timeline he thinks the Browns are on. 

That's why, ultimately, I'd expect Watson to start against the Houston Texans in Week 10, at least. Monken already decided that Watson was the QB he trusted most at the start of the season. That he was the QB who gave Cleveland the best chance to win, and for what it's worth that decision was validated by the team's 5-3 start to the season. 

Now sitting at 5-4 after the Saints loss and coming off back-to-back losses, the playoffs are still in focus and as long as that's the case Monken is probably inclined to roll with the QB he said from the start gives him the best chance to win. 

It would have been easy to start Sanders from the beginning of the season, when 2026 just felt like a year of discovery regarding the team's quarterback situation, so they knew how to address it in 2027. 

Five wins later, the Browns are living in a different reality now. So unless Monken believes that back-to-back losses have suddenly changed their priorities – the same guy who was adamant that playing for a tie or a loss in overtime wasn't in his DNA and went for two to try and win the game – then pivoting from Watson feels unlikely. 

That's not to say Sanders days starting this season are over. If the season goes south from here, he'll be back starting sooner rather than later. But he and Watson symbolize very different timelines for the organization. It seems pretty clear which one Monken will lean into.