When Cleveland Browns cornerback Tyson Campbell was traded from the Jaguars in October, he arrived to a team that had just begun the Dillon Gabriel starting quarterback experiment, and quickly witnessed one of its lowlights, a 21-9 loss to the Steelers in which the Browns plodded to just 248 yards of total offense. Five weeks later, though, Gabriel was out and fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders stepped in as the team’s third quarterback of the season.
Sanders was not the second coming of Brian Sipe, but he had a knack for play-making, despite his shortcomings. The Browns went 3-4 down the stretch.
Since then, Cleveland dropped old coach Kevin Stefanski and brought in new coach Todd Monken, a well-regarded offensive mind around the NFL. And in the meantime, Sanders has spent most of his time at the Browns’ headquarters in Berea, hoping to find ways to improve his game so that he might remain the starter in 2026.
Browns’ Tyson Campbell: Shedeur Sanders ‘Even More of a Pro’
The change has been noticeable. On the first day of Browns minicamp, Campbell told reporters that Sanders’ offseason work is showing up in his minicamp performance.
Said Campbell: “From the point I got the Browns last season to now, you can see the growth big time. The way he carries himself, the way he practices, you can tell, he’s being even more of a pro than he was last year. He’s getting better and getting more comfortable in the offense, making plays.”
Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson Helping Each Other in Competition
What remains to be seen is whether the improvements from Sanders are enough to earn him the starting job for the Browns, a role he is battling for against veteran Deshaun Watson. The big-picture question is whether Sanders has shown enough potential talent and development to earnt he job over Watson, who is known to have talent, but may have been so knocked around by age and injury that the talent has dissipated.
While a fierce Watson-Sanders battle has played out in the media, Campbell said it has been a lot more friendly than some think.
As he said: “Deshaun has been a great leader and you can tell Shedeur is soaking up all the knowledge he can from Deshaun. They’re both helping each other out. I believe iron sharpens iron. It’s been good.”
Browns Holding Off on QB Decision?
As for Monken, the decision-maker in all this, his approach has been to keep Watson and Sanders on equal footing throughout OTAs and now into this week’s minicamp. That means the two have taken turns leading the first-team offense, and split reps every third day. Monken was expected to make a decision on his starter this week, but he said is keeping the competition open.
He said: “I just don’t see it after the way Shedeur’s played and Deshaun’s played. They both played well enough to earn the right to compete to start.”
Monken added, when asked about the day Sanders had: “He did a nice job today. He’s been getting better and better with each practice day. And I thought Deshaun (Watson) did some good things today. I thought they both functioned at a high level.”
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