CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Entering Friday night, Shedeur Sanders’ NFL world orbited multiple qualifiers.
If the rookie quarterback could master NFL play-calling and verbiage … if he could learn head coach Kevin Stefanski’s offense and maximize minimal practice reps … if he secured exhibition opportunities and showed a spark … then maybe there would be a reason to make him a serious part of the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback conversation.
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Exiting Friday night, Sanders went ahead and started that dialogue. Whether the Browns are ready for it or not.
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This is what Sanders’ first meaningful NFL incursion has generated. Get beyond the symphony of social media applause from celebrities (LeBron James, Jamie Foxx, etc.), former NFL players (Richard Sherman, Gerald McCoy, etc.), and too many NFL analysts to count. Tuck all of that away and consider this: For months, the spotlight on Sanders has washed out virtually every other storyline in the organization — and that was before there was something consequential to digest.
Now he’s actually played some relevant football. And the outcome was solidly impressive for exhibition work, even from the most conservative of vantages: 14-of-23 passing for 138 yards and two touchdown passes, with two sacks and zero turnovers in nearly three quarters against the Carolina Panthers. But the true gravity of the performance was more in how Sanders held up after being tapped to start Cleveland’s first exhibition game, despite getting very few high level practice snaps since the start of training camp.
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After a series where he looked like a quarterback treading water in his first NFL opportunity, he settled into a comfort zone that was intriguing if not impressive. And he did it rotating through a tide of situational challenges that should be useful when the Browns sit down to digest the game tape.
He threw from the shotgun repeatedly, but also tucked under center a handful of times. He played snaps in the red zone with scoring opportunities, as well as backed up to Cleveland’s own goal line and throwing out of his own end zone. He was faced with third-and-long, third-and-short, and at one point, even executed a quarterback sneak for a first down. And on a few occasions, he was forced to evade the rush inside the pocket or to move outside and operate off script.
In one game, he packed in a multitude of scenarios that should have the coaching staff and front office feeling good about what it can digest as it heads into next week.
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But it also now pours jet fuel onto an external fire the Browns have been trying to tamp down for weeks, if not months. And that is this: If Sanders takes sparing opportunities and excels in those moments, how can he not become a legitimate part of a larger quarterback conversation?
A little over four weeks ago, I spoke to a high-ranking executive inside the franchise and they offered this line amid an assessment of Sanders’ potentially moving up the team’s depth chart: “How he plays in preseason games won’t be ignored.” If that sentiment still rings true, then Sanders’ performance against the Panthers can’t simply be written off as exhibition snaps against exhibition quality players, especially when the snaps come on the heels of Sanders effectively being forced into three quarters of work after fellow backup quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel suffered injuries that took them off the table for Friday night.
Shedeur Sanders showed off some solid scrambling skills on Friday against the Panthers. (Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Yet, after this performance, you could still feel Stefanski redirecting the conversation about Sanders. Nearly every postgame question had something to do with his rookie quarterback’s performance — asking how Stefanski rated it, what it meant for Sanders’ future, how the quarterback slotting might be impacted … on and on. For the most part, the Browns head coach was gently complimentary, often choosing to steer many of his answers to the overall team by using phrases like “the guys” and “the players.” It wasn’t a ham-handed attempt to keep from focusing solely on Sanders, but it wasn’t exactly subtle, either. And within it, you could feel a continued effort to put the screws down on a wider quarterback conversation.
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“We’re really just focused on developing our players,” Stefanski said at one point, when asked specifically about a potential impact to the quarterback depth chart. “We’re in evaluation mode. I’m pleased with where the guys are, but I’m not diving into the quarterback competition.”
The one thing Stefanski did allow? Sanders’ preseason opportunity is going to extend to next week’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“He’ll get a ton of reps next week as well,” Stefanski said. “That’s all a part of our development of our young players.”
For Sanders’ part, he remained diplomatic and focused inward — which has been his base line attitude from the moment Cleveland’s training camp began.
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“I just think about when I get out there just doing what I gotta do,” Sanders said. “Everything else is out of my hands, so why worry about it? I just don’t think that deep into everything because it’s something that you’re not able to control. So why put energy into something you can’t control? The most you could do is whenever you get your opportunity and your number is called, is perform and at least do the bare minimum and win the game. That’s what I feel like we did today and there’s definitely things that I could grow off of.”
At the very least, it’s an approach based in reality. Two months ago, when the Browns were heading into their full squad minicamp, it was clear Sanders was only going to be able to control the opportunities the Cleveland staff offered to him. And at the time, it didn’t sound like there would be a landslide of chances to make a difference. There was a strong insinuation that he should be viewed as nothing more than fourth-string quarterback who had a short list of things that needed to focus on.
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He needed to learn Stefanski’s scheme and take advantage of whatever reps were provided — even if they were few and far between. He had to master NFL terminology and play-calling verbiage and treat it like a first language. And above all, if the time came and he was given opportunities in preseason games, he had to make the very most out of every single snap. On Friday night, he did that.
And come Saturday morning, the quarterback conversation in Cleveland will have just gotten started.
