When Todd Monken walked into the Cleveland Browns facility and shook hands with Shedeur Sanders for the first time, he didn’t waste any time getting straight to the point.
“We tried to draft your a** last year for God’s sake,” Monken said with a grin.
That one line said a lot - not just about Monken’s personality, but about the winding path that brought both men to Cleveland. Monken, now the Browns’ head coach, was the offensive coordinator in Baltimore during the 2025 NFL Draft.
At the time, the Ravens held the No. 141 pick and were eyeing Sanders. But three selections later, it was the Browns who pulled the trigger, taking Sanders at No. 144 and making him the second quarterback they drafted that weekend after selecting Dillon Gabriel in the third round.
Fast forward nine months, and Sanders is now Cleveland’s starting quarterback - and a Pro Bowler at that.
The Browns released a behind-the-scenes video of the meeting between Monken and Sanders, and it offered a glimpse into how close the Ravens came to changing the quarterback landscape. Monken clearly hadn’t forgotten.
“It all worked out,” he told Sanders. “You remember that, right?
Some day we’ll get a chance to talk about that.”
Of course, there’s more to the story than just draft boards and pick numbers. According to Deion Sanders - Shedeur’s father and a Hall of Famer in his own right - the family actually asked both the Ravens and Eagles to pass on his son.
The thinking? Avoid a situation where Shedeur would be forced to sit behind an entrenched franchise quarterback for years.
And it made sense. In Baltimore, Lamar Jackson is a two-time MVP and still very much in his prime.
In Philly, Jalen Hurts has two Pro Bowls under his belt and a Super Bowl appearance. There wasn’t an obvious path to the field in either city.
Cleveland, on the other hand, offered opportunity - and Shedeur took it. After starting the second half of his rookie season, he made enough of an impact to earn a Pro Bowl nod, sliding in after Drake Maye’s Super Bowl 60 appearance opened up a spot.
Now, Monken and Sanders are teaming up in what could be a pivotal season for the Browns. Monken, who helped Lamar Jackson win his second MVP back in 2023, brings a creative and aggressive offensive mind to a unit that desperately needs a spark. Cleveland has finished dead last in points scored each of the past two seasons, and their 8-26 record over that span reflects just how much work there is to do.
The quarterback room remains crowded heading into 2026, with Sanders, Deshaun Watson, and Dillon Gabriel all under contract. But general manager Andrew Berry has made it clear that Monken will have a significant voice in determining who gets the keys to the offense.
And with two first-round picks in the upcoming draft - No. 6 and No. 24 - the Browns have flexibility. Whether they use those picks to bolster the offense around Sanders or shake things up even further remains to be seen.
But one thing is clear: Monken and Sanders have history, and now they’ve got a shared future. What started as a near-miss in Baltimore could end up being a franchise-defining connection in Cleveland.