As of Wednesday morning, first-year Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken had not publicly revealed whether veteran Deshaun Watson or second-year pro Shedeur Sanders would get the start for Cleveland’s preseason opener at the Chicago Bears this coming Saturday.
It turns out there may be a reason Monken has delayed that decision.
Has Shedeur Sanders been dealing with an injury?
While speaking on-site at the Browns’ training camp on Tuesday afternoon, Jonathan Peterlin of Cleveland sports radio station 92.3 The Fan divulged that Sanders has been dealing with a blister on his throwing hand.
“I’ve heard from people around Shedeur that he’s actually dealing with a blister issue right now,” Peterlin explained, per J.R. DeGroote of Heavy. “People are not being sensitive enough to the blister issue at the current moment. That’s what it is.”
Reports from this week hinted that the Browns’ starting job was essentially Watson’s “to lose.” However, Monken has insisted that the competition is too close to call heading into the Chicago game. On Tuesday, the Browns’ unofficial depth chart listed Watson OR Sanders as the team’s QB1.
“The ball isn’t going to be a perfect tight spiral when you have a blister on your throwing hand on one of your fingers,” Peterlin added about Sanders. “That’s just the reality of it. He’s still out there grinding, locating passes where they need to be.”
Todd Monken doesn’t seem close to making a final Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson decision
On Tuesday afternoon, Monken discussed what he will want to see from Sanders and Watson at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
“Got to learn to get the ball out. Got to learn how to slide,” Monken said about evaluating how the quarterbacks play in preseason games, per Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN. “You’re not going to be able to just run around. I do want playmaking ability, so there is a balance there between playmaking ability and taking some sacks. You’re going to have to live with that to an extent. The other part is stacking plays, where it matters, because they got the scoreboard on in terms of points you put on the board. In terms of the flow of the game, that’s a big part of it. We’re going to be on the road. The ebbs and flows of positive plays and negative plays, overcoming that. I think there’s a part of the quarterback’s body language, how they are around the team. Do I sense, ‘Hey, that’s over. I’ve moved on to the next play.’ So there’s a number of things you get to evaluate once you get to the closest we have in terms of games, which is preseason.”
During Tuesday night’s edition of his radio show, Monken repeated that both quarterbacks will start at least one preseason game. He also said that the signal-caller who starts against the Bears should expect to play through the entire first half of the game.
Presumably, the quarterback who doesn’t start this coming Saturday will start Cleveland’s home game against the Buffalo Bills
on Aug. 22. It remains unknown when Monken will name his Week 1 starter.
This content was brought to you by: Yardbarker: NFL
