Cleveland Browns News & Rumors

Shedeur Sanders made his first career start yesterday. His ascension to the top of the depth chart was made out of necessity, but his second start will come by way of a coaching decision.

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Kevin Stefanski said on Monday that Dillon Gabriel has cleared concussion protocol. Nevertheless, the Browns will give the nod once again to Sanders in Week 13. Cleveland won 24-10 in Vegas yesterday, and the team will give its fifth-round rookie at least one more look as a result.

“The number one job of a quarterback is to win,” Stefanski said (via ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi). “So, excited to get that first win under his belt. And the next thing is improvement, and that’s what young players do… You get one game better, and that’s just from working at it. So, that’ll be our focus.”

Gabriel’s concussion left him sidelined for Week 12, ending a run of five consecutive starts. The third-rounder was limited to the first half of the Browns’ game against the Ravens the previous week. That allowed Sanders to finish the contest in his place. During that time, Sanders completed just four of 16 pass attempts while being intercepted once and sacked twice.

A full week of practice with the starting offense – a first in Sanders’ case given Cleveland’s logjam at quarterback through training camp and the start of the season – resulted in increased expectations for his first career start. The Colorado product had an up-and-down day highlighted on one hand by a 52-yard completion to Isaiah Bond and on the other hand by an avoidable interception. Overall, Sanders went 11-for-2o passing for 209 yards, one touchdown and one pick.

Improvement on those numbers will obviously be a goal moving forward, and future opponents will in many cases prove to be more challenging than the Raiders. Cleveland’s next game will be at home against San Francisco. Sanders and the Browns will look to build off the momentum from yesterday’s contest in Week 13 and moving forward.

When asked if this is a permanent decision, Stefanski said his attention is only focused on this week. As a result, the door could be open to Dillon – who has posted only a 5.1 yards per attempt average while completing just 59.2% of his passes – returning to the QB1 spot. Much will of course depend on how Sanders fares this coming Sunday. A win against the 49ers would make him the first rookie Browns passer since Bernie Kosar in 1985 to begin a career 2-0.

With Dillon Gabriel in concussion protocol, the 2-8 Browns will turn to their third starting quarterback of the season in Week 12. Fifth-round rookie Shedeur Sanders will get the nod against the Raiders on Sunday, head coach Kevin Stefanski announced.

Gabriel suffered his injury in last Sunday’s loss to the Ravens, paving the way for Sanders’ NFL debut. He completed 4 of 16 passes for 47 yards and an interception in relief of Gabriel, a third-round rookie who has struggled mightily since taking over in Week 5.

The Browns named Gabriel their starter after trading Joe Flacco to the Bengals on Oct. 7. The left-hander has tossed seven touchdowns against two interceptions in eight games, but he has posted a subpar 59.2 completion percentage and an 80.8 passer rating. His 30.9 QBR ranks 32nd in the NFL.

Stefanski said Gabriel’s health is “improving,” but not quickly enough for him to play against another 2-8 team this weekend. Sanders will get all the first-team reps in practice this week, per Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com. That should give Sanders a better chance to succeed than he had when he came off the bench in Week 11.

There may not have been a more polarizing prospect in last spring’s draft than Sanders. Many expected him to go in the first round, but the former Colorado standout fell all the way to pick 144. Even though the Browns took Gabriel two rounds earlier, they couldn’t pass on Sanders’ value in Round 5. They traded up for the 2024 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, which came after some teams reportedly removed Sanders from their draft boards. Various clubs had concerns that Sanders didn’t take his pre-draft interviews seriously, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote in May.

While the Ravens were prepared to use the 141st pick on Sanders, he was reportedly uninterested in joining a team with an established QB. AFC North rival Cleveland presented a clearer path to playing time than Baltimore, which has two-time MVP Lamar Jackson entrenched as its signal-caller.

Sanders will now have at least one week to make his case to serve as the Browns’ starter for the rest of the season. Poised to finish near the bottom of the league standings for the second straight year, the Browns will enter the draft armed with two first-round selections (one acquired from Jacksonville). If the Browns aren’t convinced they have the answer in Gabriel, Sanders, or the injured Deshaun Watson when April rolls around, they could use a high pick on a QB.