Under new head coach Todd Monken, Cleveland has reopened the quarterback competition. The franchise is staring down an unsettled depth chart, one where Shedeur Sanders sat dead last for most of the 2025 season. With reports of yet another quarterback arriving in Cleveland, a two-time Super Bowl champion is stepping forward with a word of advice for the young signal-caller heading into his sophomore year.

“I’ll tell Shedeur. You shouldn’t care who they bring in,” former running back LeSean McCoy said on the Speakeasy podcast on March 2. “You should want to bring smiles because if they do, that brings the best in you. Always said competition is the best thing for a player. If you want to see how good a player is, bring somebody in that’s decent, and you’ll see how he responds. Does he quit and put his tail between his legs or go out there on his shield? I don’t think he’s going to be nervous at all.”​

That advice carries real weight because it comes from a player who had to grind for every opportunity he ever got. McCoy was drafted by the Eagles in the second round in 2009 and immediately had to earn his place on the roster behind Brian Westbrook. 

He spent his rookie year splitting carries and playing in Westbrook’s shadow before eventually taking the reins at the running back position for Philly after Westbrook was released in 2010.

The Eagles eventually traded McCoy to the Bills in 2015, and the Bills released him just days before the 2019 regular season. That’s when the stars aligned. He signed with the Chiefs and won his first Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl LIV. 

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The Chiefs did not retain him, though. McCoy moved on to sign with Tampa Bay in the final year of his career, winning yet again in Super Bowl LV. But, the remarkable footnote: McCoy did not play a single snap in either of those championship games, yet walked away with two rings.

Still, the grind McCoy is speaking from mirrors what Sanders walked into last season. He endured the most brutal and public draft-day slide in recent memory, eventually landing in Cleveland as a fifth-round pick. He entered a room that already had three other quarterbacks and Deshaun Watson on the depth chart.​

The Browns did not even give Sanders first-team reps during training camp. He only got his shot when fellow then-rookie Dillon Gabriel went down with a concussion in Week 11. Over his seven starts, Sanders posted a 3-4 record and finished the season completing 120 of 212 passes for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns.

To put that into context: Gabriel finished with a 1-5 record, and Joe Flacco went 1-3. Of all the quarterbacks Cleveland cycled through last season, Sanders’ numbers were the best any of them produced. And yet, the Browns still walked into the offseason unsure about who their starter is. And decided to add another quarterback to an already crowded room rather than commit to what they already have.

Shedeur Sanders is caught in the middle of a decision that Cleveland can’t make

Right now, the players fighting for Cleveland’s starting job are Gabriel, Sanders, and Watson, who is expected to rejoin the competition after missing more than a year. Amid all the uncertainty, Monken did offer Sanders a rare moment of encouragement at the NFL scouting combine. Asked whether Sanders could be the Week 1 starter, Monken did not hesitate. 

“Sure, he can,” the coach said. “I think what you see is elite playmaking ability. That’s in him. You’ve seen it. We’ve seen it. You saw it in college. You saw it on tape last year.” ​

But any hope that Cleveland might simply hand Sanders the job evaporated quickly. General Manager Andrew Berry made it clear at the combine that adding another quarterback was a real “possibility.” The franchise expects genuine competition for the starting role. Monken doubled down, saying he saw no reason why it “wouldn’t be an open competition.”

“I don’t mean that harshly. But I don’t think there’s enough on film over the last couple of years, one way or the other, to say, ‘Boy, we have a starter at quarterback’ yet, whether internally or externally,” Monken added.

The Browns enter the offseason holding 10 draft picks, including two in the first round at sixth and 24th overall. Despite that ammunition, the franchise is reportedly looking to address the quarterback room through a trade rather than the draft. Per Zac Jackson of The Athletic, the Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson has emerged as a leading candidate. 

Richardson was drafted fourth overall by the Colts in 2023 but did not see the field as a starter at all last season. Reportedly, the two parties have mutually agreed to seek a trade for him in February. He would enter Cleveland as yet another competitor in a race that is already anything but straightforward for Sanders heading into Year 2.