BEREA ― The Browns’ Berea headquarters isn’t devoid of players during February and March. There’s always a handful who stay in the area to work out or to rehab injuries.
Owner Jimmy Haslam happened to be in the building early one March morning when he encountered one of them: Shedeur Sanders. Not that it was the first time in the offseason Haslam had seen the quarterback, fresh off his rookie season, around the facility.
“He’s been in Cleveland most of the winter, and I think that says a lot for his dedication to wanting to be a NFL quarterback and understanding what it takes,” Haslam recounted to a group of beat writers, including the Beacon Journal, during the NFL owners meetings March 30. “His body looks better. I think he’s been working hard. So I think it’s hard for a lot of college kids to understand what it takes to play in the NFL, and particularly quarterback. I think Shedeur got an education [in] that, and my instincts are he’ll come back ready to play.”
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There were plenty of options for how Sanders could’ve spent the offseason training. The son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders could’ve gone back to Texas, or any number of other exotic locales where he could’ve gotten the work in while also not dealing with Northeast Ohio’s cold and snow.
Sanders, though, understood the significant of this offseason. He also understood the responsibility of his position.
“Well, this is the most important thing I have to do in my life,” Sanders said after a voluntary minicamp workout April 21. “I have a house here. I’m comfortable and I wanted to take everything to the next level within myself. I know with some things that I wanted to improve and I took a lot of time to self-reflect and just do a lot of things just from a different perspective, honestly. And I think I covered a lot of ground with that.”
There’s still ground that remains to be covered for Sanders, who started the final seven games of the 2025 season. Despite that fact, he will enter training camp locked in a battle with Deshaun Watson to be the Browns’ starting quarterback in 2026.
That competition appeared to be tilted toward Watson early in the process, which included the initial two weeks of OTAs in May. However, Sanders finished OTAs and June minicamp with a flourish, which left Browns coach Todd Monken unwilling to designate one or the other as the No. 1 quarterback going into camp.
“I think he’s being more decisive,” Monken said of Sanders after the final minicamp practice. “Now, it’s easy to say we’re not in pads. It just feels like he’s making quicker decisions. The ball’s coming out of his hands, which he’s gonna have to do. Not that he doesn’t have playmaking ability, because he does, but his ability to process quicker and get the ball out of his hands and eliminate lost yardage plays is going to be huge for us to be able to stack plays and score, which is ultimately the No. 1 thing here.”
Sanders’ rookie season was, to be kind, a roller-coaster ride. He went from essentially being QB4 in his first training camp last summer to being QB2 in Week 6 after Joe Flacco was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals to, finally, becoming QB1 when Dillon Gabriel departed a Week 11 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at halftime with a concussion.
Even in those seven games, Sanders had plenty of peaks and valleys, including a game-winning field goal drive in the final minutes of the finale at Cincinnati and a last-minute addition to the AFC Pro Bowl roster. He completed 56.6% of his passes for 1,400 yards with seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions, a 68.1 passer rating and 23 sacks.
Monken, offensive coordinator Travis Switzer and quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakian spoke during the offseason of the improvements they’ve seen from Sanders in their few short months working with him. Two areas they mentioned were footwork and going through his progressions.
“I try to make everything, being the best quarterback in the world, a point of emphasis,” Sanders said during minicamp June 10. “So whatever I need to improve, then I look at that and I try to improve. So it’s just the whole thing, just being a better person, like just overall everything. So it’s not one thing. It’s when you look at everything as a whole, you understand, OK, this is what I need to get better at, and I changed that. So everything you can be.”
There is one significant difference for Sanders between his first and second season. Gone are the head coach (Kevin Stefanski), offensive coordinator (Tommy Rees) and quarterbacks coach (Bill Musgrave), replaced by Monken, Switzer and Bajakian.
Sanders didn’t speak directly about the past regime during either availability in the offseason program. However, he did make it clear the impact Monken has had on him since being hired in late January.
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“I think Coach just spoke life into me, and then when you do that, then you just get the best result for me, honestly,” Sanders said in April. “That’s what you get. So I was here one day and he was like, ‘Well, if you want to be the best quarterback you want to be, then you got to do that on a daily thing, on a daily regimen, on daily time.’
“So that’s what clicked for me. And then I was like, ‘OK, I need to improve this area.’ And it’s just one step at a time. You got to do this, you got to do this, you got to do this. And you keep adding things as you start getting momentum and everything.”
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ. Sign up for Browns Insider newsletter at https://profile.beaconjournal.com/newsletters/browns-insider/
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Shedeur Sanders focused on ‘being the best quarterback in the world’
Reporting by Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
