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The Browns handed Todd Monken an offense last built around Lamar Jackson, and now he inherits a quarterback room where the leading candidates could not move more differently. That contrast frames the biggest tactical question of Cleveland's camp.
Can a slippery, second-year former fifth-round pick run a system that recently squeezed everything out of one of football's most dangerous runners? Deshaun Watson brings the athletic profile Monken is used to. Shedeur Sanders does not, and pretending otherwise misreads what he actually offers.
On the Orange and Brown Talk podcast, beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot and host Dan Labbe worked through the fit. Labbe likened Sanders' movement to Baker Mayfield or Jameis Winston, passers who wiggle inside the pocket and tuck the ball only when forced rather than by design.
Cabot's verdict pushed against the doubt. "I think he can," she said of Sanders operating the scheme, granting that while he is no dual-threat runner, "he's got a lot of moxie, he's got a lot of guts."
The nuance worth stressing is that Monken's offense never leaned on Jackson's speed to function. It rewarded a quarterback who kept plays alive after the pocket cracked, and that skill travels no matter a passer's forty time.
Sanders flashed exactly that during spring work, buying extra seconds and keeping his eyes downfield as defenders closed. If those reps carry into the fall, Cleveland gains a wrinkle that Watson's health has made unreliable, and the case for patience with a low-cost draft flier grows a lot stronger.
Why Sanders' Grit Could Outweigh His Missing Mobility
The trait that may decide whether Sanders sticks has little to do with speed and everything to do with holding up under fire. Cabot came away convinced that his composure against a live rush is a real asset, not a talking point.
She described watching him absorb hits and spring right back up, crediting a mental edge she traced to his upbringing as the son of Deion Sanders. That resilience, she suggested, lets him hold his spot when most quarterbacks would bail.
Her sharpest example came against a fearsome edge rusher.
"I was very impressed with the off-schedule plays that he made and with his ability to fearlessly stand in there when Maxx Crosby is about to drill you and get the ball off," Cabot said, noting he simply does not flinch. On his overall grit, she was blunt: "Yeah, he's tough. He is tough as nails."
There is a catch, and it is the swing factor nobody should overlook. When Sanders stops trusting his reads, he tends to retreat, eat losses, and turn a workable second down into a third-and-long headache. Cabot made clear Monken has no appetite for that habit. "Todd Monken is not going to have that on his offense," she said.
So the real project of the camp is not conjuring mobility Sanders will never have. It is quickening his internal clock so the ball leaves on schedule and the toughness becomes a bonus rather than a rescue. Release it on rhythm, and his grit stops covering for hesitation and starts creating edges.
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