One of Todd Monken’s main priorities as the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns is figuring out who will be his starting quarterback for Week 1. 

Monken has three options to look at this season — Deshaun Watson, who wasn’t available all last season due to injury; Dillon Gabriel, the team’s third-round pick in 2025; and Shedeur Sanders, the Browns’ starter at the end of last season. 

Monken hopes one of these quarterbacks can set themselves apart over time. But all eyes will be on Sanders, who started the final seven games of the 2025 season for the Browns, to emerge as the starter for Monken. 

During the NFL Scouting Combine this week, Monken was asked about his quarterbacks, specifically whether he sees Sanders as the team’s starter. 

“I think what you see is elite playmaking ability,” Monken said, according to the New York Post. “That’s in him. You’ve seen it, we’ve seen it. You saw it in college. You saw it on tape last year. Sure, there’s a ways to go, but what rookie isn’t? What first-year player doesn’t have a long way to go? I’m excited to get started with him and all of our quarterbacks and all of our players.”

Sanders went 3-4 over those seven starts, while Gabriel was 1-5 after taking over for Joe Flacco, who was traded to the division rival Cincinnati Bengals after an injury to starter Joe Burrow. 

It’s worth noting the Baltimore Ravens, with Monken as offensive coordinator under former head coach John Harbaugh, wanted to draft Sanders to back up Lamar Jackson, the team’s two-time MVP quarterback. However, Sanders made it known he wished to go somewhere in the draft where he had a chance of being the team’s starter. 

Sanders was never going to jump Jackson on the depth chart in 2025 and beyond, so the Browns eventually took him in the fifth round after a shocking fall down the draft board last April. 

Watson is in the final year of what has been a disastrous $250 million, fully guaranteed contract for the former Houston Texans ace signal-caller. While playing in three Pro Bowls during his time in Houston, Watson has played just 17 games during his time in Cleveland, which included suspensions on top of his injuries. 

Yet, Monken believes a player who has shown elite talent on the field, no matter when it was, deserves a shot. 

“I think you are always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we might be able to get that out of them again,” Monken explained. “I think that’s how you should look at every player. I’m going to let it play out.”

In his 17 games with the Browns, Watson is 9-10, which includes a 1-6 mark in 2024 before an Achilles injury ended his season. 

Sanders threw for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions in his seven starts for Cleveland last season. He was eventually named a Pro Bowl replacement.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Roki Sasaki took the mound Wednesday, looking to build off the success he enjoyed late last season, as he enters his second year with the Dodgers.

It did not go smoothly, with Sasaki struggling to find the strike zone and getting hit hard by the Arizona Diamondbacks when he did. The 24-year-old right-hander gave up three runs on three hits and two walks. He did record three strikeouts, with his fastball topping out at 98.6 miles per hour, but only 17 of his 36 pitches landed for strikes.

“There were some positive things, but also things I need to work on,” Sasaki said via an interpreter after he was lifted from the Dodgers’ 10-7 win.

Sasaki gave up a hard-hit single to leadoff hitter Geraldo Perdomo, and Tim Tawa walked. With one out, Nolan Arenado hit a line-drive double to left that scored Perdomo. Ildemaro Vargas followed with another double, scoring Tawa and Arenado for a 3-0 lead.

After a mound visit from pitching coach Mark Prior, Sasaki struck out Jordan Lawlar and Ryan Waldschmidt to end the inning. Sasaki struck out Druw Jones leading off the second, then walked Aramis Garcia and was removed.

“In the bullpen, I felt pretty good about the forkball but once I got on the mound, it didn’t go well,” Sasaki said. “And the four-seam, I felt pretty good in the bullpen but once I got on the mound, it felt a little off.”

Sasaki emerged as a viable high-leverage relief option out of Dave Roberts’ bullpen upon his return to the club’s big-league roster in late September. He gave up just one run, six hits and five walks over 10.2 IP in the postseason. But the goal this spring is for him to cement himself as a mainstay in the club’s pitching rotation.

“I thought he was overthrowing, I hadn’t seen that all spring,” Roberts said after the game. “He was a little too bullish on the fastball, but he was getting behind in the first inning. It was good to see that second inning, I thought he mixed better and commanded the baseball a little bit better.”

Sasaki spent the offseason working to develop a third pitch, to add to his fastball-splitter mix. The new weapon in Sasaki’s arsenal has been described by Roberts as a “slider-cutter” hybrid.

Two other notable names made their Cactus League debuts on Wednesday for the Dodgers, with River Ryan pitching a scoreless third inning while walking one and striking out one. Edwin Díaz pitched the fourth inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson filed a lawsuit against the women’s golf tour NXXT in December after it changed its policies to prevent biological males from competing against females. 

NXXT and its attorneys from America First Policy Institute filed its motion to dismiss this week, and believe the suit will be thrown out. 

“We are asking the courts to dismiss the claims, and we’re addressing the matter,” NXXT Golf CEO Stuart McKinnon told Fox News Digital. 

“This was about simply protecting women’s sports. So the goal was really clarity and competitive integrity, and, as a professional tour, we believe it was our responsibility to define those categories.”

McKinnon said after the organization updated its policies, he reached out to Davidson to offer the golfer a chance to compete on the tour in an open category, free of cost, and would even pay for Davidson’s Q School – an annual, multi-stage tournament where golfers compete for playing status on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour. 

“I had a talk with Davidson. And at that time, prior to the change, I had offered Davidson the opportunity to play in an open division. And in that open division, I had offered Hayley Davidson to play in that open division and even a management position in that open division, and we would allow Davidson to play for free,” McKinnon said. 

“We would pay for Q School fees for Davidson. So we were very generous and respectful of what Davidson wanted to do. And my message to Davidson was simply that perhaps your legacy is forging the path for future generations. But it can’t be right now in this women’s tour right now, when I’m running it, and we are going to make the policy change.”

McKinnon said the trans athlete rejected the offer.

Now, his tour is engaged in a legal battle against Davidson. It was an outcome he expected when he made the policy change, but believed it was necessary based on the feedback of his golfers. 

McKinnon said he came to the decision after distributing an anonymous poll to the female golfers on his tour, as the vast majority of them expressed concern over Davidson’s presence.

“We did an anonymous player poll, which we had a high response rate within a very short period of time. Within two or three days, we had 80% plus response rate, and it was clear that the players, you know, were speaking, that they felt the policy change was in order,” McKinnon said. 

“The theme was that it was unfair, and they wanted us to address our policies.” 

McKinnon said that a few female golfers expressed support for maintaining the current policy and allowing Davidson to compete.

“We just respectfully disagreed with one another,” McKinnon said. 

McKinnon had to watch Davidson finish first place on the tour in January 2024, marking Davidson’s third first-place finish at the event. The win put Davidson in the race to earn an Epson Tour exemption, which is the developmental tour of the LPGA Tour. The top 10 players of the Epson Tour graduate to the LPGA Tour.

At the time, the LPGA’s policy allowed biological males to compete without much restriction.

NXXT was one of the first women’s tours that stepped up to make a policy change. The LPGA then changed its own policy to bring about more restrictions to protect the women’s category in December 2024. 

Now, as Davidson wages a legal battle against NXXT for pioneering the protection of women’s golf, McKinnon doesn’t expect the lawsuit will impede his tour’s operations.

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“Nothing has changed from an operational standpoint. We’re going to continue to grow,” McKinnon said. 

“We’ve expanded the tour from the NXXT Women’s Pro Tour to the NXXT Battle Tour, which is a professional co-ed tour that we’re launching, as well our NXXT Gen Tour, which is our junior tour. It’s a competitive pathway for elite juniors, male and female. And we just actually have announced a partnership with Sir Nick Faldo for the NEXT Faldo Junior Tour. So all systems are go here at NXXT. We’re growing the pathway. We’re growing the tour.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Davidson’s attorneys for a response. 

Davidson’s lawsuit argues NXXT breached its contractual obligations and made false representations to Davidson, leading to wrongful exclusion from professional golf opportunities.

“Defendants breached the Contracts by implementing the Policy Change that resulted in Ms. Davidson being prohibited from participating in the entirety of the NXXT Winter Series; failing to allow Ms. Davidson to compete in any NXXT Winter Series tournaments after the Policy Change; retaining Ms. Davidson’s annual NXXT Golf membership fees and entry fees for NXXT Winter Series tournaments; and not awarding Ms. Davidson the Epson Exemptions she had earned,” the lawsuit stated.

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