The first open OTA practice of the season, with no pads and limited pass rush, has led to a focus on the Browns' offense. Coach Todd Monken praises Shedeur Sanders, the second-year quarterback competing with Deshaun Watson, but also criticizes the quarterback room for throwing interceptions in 7-on-7 drills.
I have been doing this daily nonsense long enough to know that May football is dangerous territory for the easily excitable. And the guy with a website who has to type something before the coffee finishes punching through the fog in his skull.
The Browns practiced indoors yesterday, which effectively meant the media stood in a corner with the offense practicing close by and the defense on the other side. So, it’s no surprise that most of what we see in the Newswire today is focused on the offense. Which makes sense, regardless, since that’s where 95% of the drama resides.
So, here we go: first open OTA practice, no pads, no real pass rush, a quarterback competition that will be dissected like an unlucky frog in high school Biology class. The headline item from Wednesday is that Monken had real praise for Shedeur Sanders, the second-year quarterback who is competing with Deshaun Watson for the Browns’ starting job.
“I think Shedeur’s come miles in terms of his progressions, getting the ball out, his understanding of concepts,” Monken said. “I think he’s really, really come a long way. ” Then came out the other side of Todd Monken, who sounds like the anti-Stefanski in how he deals with the need for improvement. There’s little “process” talk, and quite a bit of honesty.
After Wednesday’s OTA practice, Monken was not thrilled with the quarterback room putting the ball in places it did not belong. As, Monken said, “We threw interceptions in 7-on-7 for God’s sakes. Who does that? There’s no pass rush.
It was embarrassing. ” That is not exactly the laminated motivational poster they hang in the quarterback meeting room. It was more like a cynical Dilbert cartoon that someone anonymously posted in the break room in 1998. But it is useful.
Monken is setting a standard in May. He is telling the room that the offense does not get to shrug off bad decisions just because everybody is wearing shorts and no one is allowed to tackle anyone. There is a line between patience and permissiveness, and Monken appears uninterested in pretending that a pick in 7-on-7 is just one of those delightful springtime mysteries.
Our guys at practice, along with the rest of the media, noted that Watson and Sanders shared first-team reps on Wednesday, with Dillon Gabriel and rookie Taylen Green working behind them. That will be enough to launch 12,000 social media arguments, most of which will be conducted by people who did not see the practice, do not know the play call, are looking at meaningless “passing stats” for lunkheads, and may currently be yelling at a decorative pillow.
This is the ecosystem we have built, and I am apparently part of the problem, so please recycle this paragraph responsibly. The important part is that Monken has said he would like to have the quarterback situation settled by the end of the spring if possible, but he also told reporters, “You’d love to have it at every position at the end of spring, but you can’t guarantee that. We’ll have it set for Jacksonville.
” That last part is the part that matters. Not Wednesday. Not the second OTA practice. Not whether a throw on May 20 looked better in a seven-second phone clip than another throw from another angle.
Jacksonville is the deadline. Everything before that is evidence, not a verdict. There was non-quarterback news on Wednesday, which is always refreshing because I can only stare into the quarterback abyss for so long before it starts asking me for a guaranteed contract. Judkins was one of the few bright spots in 2025 before his rookie season ended with that ugly injury, so seeing some burst, cuts, and breakaway speed again in May is encouraging.
Now, yes, this is the part where your favorite old webdork taps the brakes. Nobody earns a 1,200-yard season in shorts. Nobody reclaims a running game in Phase Whatever of the offseason program. That matters because the Browns’ 2026 offense cannot be a weekly quarterback referendum and nothing else.
If Judkins is healthy, if the offensive line settles, if the backs can make Monken’s offense less predictable — yes, I said “if” three times in one sentence because I have watched this team before — then the quarterback has a chance to operate in something resembling a grown-up structure. Even without Directly Adding Talent, Why the Cleveland Browns Running Backs will be More EffectiveA Florida man named Luis Salazar spent days trying to return $30,000 he found, eventually getting the money back to its owner because, as he put it, “it wasn’t mine to take.
” That story comes from theI have found exactly zero stray bags of $30,000 in my life. But I like stories like this because they remind you that decency is still out there doing quiet work, usually without a PR department. Good for Mr. Salazar. May his next found object be something less stressful, like a coupon or a reasonably priced left tackle.
When not trying to determine whether a May interception counts as football treason, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on TwitterNorth Canton crash kills two, seriously injures juvenile passenger
Browns May Football Offense Shedeur Sanders Deshaun Watson Coach Monken OTA Practice Quarterback Room Interceptions 7-On-7 Drills
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