PYN MAG

The question of who will start at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns has a wrinkle to it: There's a new coaching staff.

The staff that gave Shedeur Sanders seven starts last season when Sanders was a rookie is gone. Todd Monken, who was the Baltimore Ravens' offensive coordinator last season, was hired to become Cleveland's new head coach.

There's a full offseason to go, in terms of acquiring new players in trades, free agency or the draft. The quarterback landscape in Cleveland could change. But Monken, meeting with the media at the NFL scouting combine on Wednesday, had positive things to say about Sanders.

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"I think what you see is elite playmaking ability," Monken saidat the combine. "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 was up and down as a rookie after a highly publicized fall in the draft. He had seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions, and general manager Andrew Berry pointed out at the combine on Tuesday that hehad to cut down on mistakes.

That progression, and the Browns' offseason moves, could determine if Sanders gets more starts next season. Monken said he didn't think it was necessarily important to add more quarterbacks in the offseason, but he said the team will do it's due diligence at the position.

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As is, the team's three options seem to be Sanders, fellow 2025 rookie Dillon Gabriel and Deshaun Watson, whom the team refuses to rule out as an option.

"I think anytime you have a player that at one time has exhibited the skill set at an elite level, I think you're always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we might be able to get that out of him again," Monken said about Watson.

That's not a great quarterback room, but the Browns also don't have a great path to adding a better rookie quarterback in the draft, and there are limited options in free agency.

If the Browns' quarterback room doesn't change, there's clearly no leader at the moment to start next season.

"Sure, I think it's an open competition," Monken said. "I don't know why it wouldn't be an open competition, and I don't mean to say 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.'"

The Browns will evaluate whoever is on the roster over offseason practices and Monken said he'd like to have a starter in mind by training camp. But right now, he didn't know if he'd be able to name a starter by then.

"You would hope that's the case, you'd hope that by the time you get to training camp, the reps you're giving to a quarterback are for your starter," Monken said. "Whether we get to that place, I don't know. That will be determined in the offseason."

In his first battle against theautomated ball-strikesystem,Paul Skeneswas no match for the robots.

Pitching his first inning of the spring as he ramps up for both thePittsburgh Piratesand Team USA'sWorld Baseball Classic squad, Skenes faced called strike challenges from Atlanta Braves batters on three occasions.

And the Braves successfully challenged all three calls by homeplate umpire Chris Segal - and added another in the second inning.

Two of the overturns definitely made life more difficult for Skenes. Braves first baseman Matt Olson - one of the game's most disciplined hitters - challenged a 1-1 curveball that Segal called a strike, nicking the outside corner. Olson, a sheepish grin on his face, tapped his head just, you know, to see what happened.

Sure enough, Segal erred - by one-tenth of an inch, ABS ruled - and a 1-2 count became a 2-1 count. Olson went on to draw a two-out walk, illustrating how certain counts - such as 1-1 - are more pivotal and perhaps crucial to challenge.

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Thusly emboldened, Jurickson Profar followed by challenging the first pitch - a 98.3 mph fastball seemingly on the outside corner. Segal? Wrong again, this time by a half-inch. And 0-1 became 1-0 and Profar drew a walk.

On challenge No. 3, Skenes finally took matters into his own hands. Jumping ahead 0-2 on Austin Riley, he fired a 99-mph fastball at the top of the zone. Segal punched Riley out - and Riley was tapping his helmet before Skenes could even think to trudge off the mound.

Call overturned - a whole 1.5 inches above the zone.

At that point, the camera turned to Skenes' girlfriend, Livvy Dunne, in the stands at the Braves' CoolToday Park in North Port, Fla. She looked far more relieved when Skenes threw an almost identical pitch - just a smidge lower and in the zone.

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And Riley swung through it anyway.

The Braves' pedantry cost Skenes anywhere from three to 13 more pitches, finishing with 31 for the inning. Not necessarily what the Pirates or Skenes wanted.

But he still put up a zero and struck out two - proving robots can only break Skenes down so much.

Yet challenges will be a way of life in this, the first year of the ABS system in which teams are granted two challenges for both sides of the ball - and get to keep them if they're successful. Spring 2025 was a trial run, but with the system going live on Opening Day, teams are doing what they can to ace the system.

And perhaps the Braves got the NL's reigning Cy Young Award winner off his game just a bit.

In his second inning of work, Skenes was his own enemy, issuing walks to Mike Yastrzemski and Mauricio Dubón. Leadoff batter Ronald Acuña Jr. then challenged a fastball that ABS ruled was 1.5 inches outside.

Skenes got Acuña on a pop-up, seemingly no worse for wear. Yet this was Skenes' lone spring start for the Pirates before the WBC, and they'd hoped to get him through three innings.

Instead, he was lifted with one out in the third, his 53 pitches not enough to complete the frame. Skenes struck out four but also walked four - technology no help in his efforts at pitch efficiency.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Paul Skenes victim of MLB's ABS challenge system in first spring start