“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, daily time,’” Sanders said. “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 keep adding things as you start getting momentum and everything. So, I think it’s just having (a head coach) just talking to you, like, I think that’s it. Just a relationship. I’m a relationship-based person, so I take relationships extremely serious.”
Sanders “was first man up” Tuesday for quarterbacks as the Browns opened voluntary minicamp. Cleveland rotated first-man reps between Sanders and Deshaun Watsonwith Sanders getting the most.
Monken, however, disagreed with the competition being tabbed as a two-player battle pitting Watson and Sanders. He said Dillon Gabriel, a 2025 third-round pick, was in the mix.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a two-man race,” Monken said. “I would just say that at every position, there’s competition, irrespective of the reps that they get, which I’ve said before, I mean everybody ought to be competing. But what I have liked with Dillon, is the way he goes about his business. Very professional, highly intelligent, understands football, has a certain charisma about him and a confidence that’s hard to create. He has it innate. You saw it throughout his career. You don’t go to three different programs and have the success he had if he doesn’t have a belief in himself.”
Asked if he feels it’s his time to claim the starting job, Sanders said: “That’s not up to me. I go out there every day and focus on what I can control. If I focus on something I can’t control, then I’ll be living the wrong way.”
Last year, Sanders had to wait in line behind Joe Flacco and Gabriel before he started the final seven games of the season, and he made multiple references on Tuesday about weathering that difficult process.
But it’s clear now that Sanders is in a more comfortable spot than a year ago.
“I’m loving what we’re doing,” he said. “I’m open to learning every day. I’m just coming here with a renewed mindset and just approaching life with a renewed mindset.”
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