Shedeur Sanders only has himself to blame for losing Browns QB battle

The Cleveland Browns waited a while to announce their starting quarterback, but there was never really a competition. Joe Flacco was brought back to Cleveland to start, and that's exactly what he's going to be doing Week 1. The real Browns QB competition was to determine who Flacco's backup would be. That was between a pair of rookies, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, especially with Kenny Pickett eventually getting traded to the Las Vegas Raiders. The Browns revealed that Gabriel won that battle, earning the team's QB2 job. This comes across as a blatant slap in the face to some Sanders fans, but it really shouldn't.

Fans of Sanders and/or Colorado football have claimed that the NFL is "out to get" Sanders and that there's some sort of league-wide conspiracy against the quarterback ever since he fell to the Browns' laps in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft. While it was certainly surprising to see Sanders fall as far as he did, it'd be foolish to act as if he didn't have glaring holes in his game from his time in college.

During the preseason, he didn't exactly ease those concerns. In fact, those feel only magnified now. His shortcomings are why he fell to the fifth round, and they're why he lost the competition to Dillon Gabriel.

Shedeur Sanders' preseason performance left a lot to be desired

Sanders impressed in Cleveland's preseason opener, completing 14 of his 23 passing attempts for 138 yards and two touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers. As impressive as he looked at times in that game, he did not appear in Cleveland's second game, and then was held to 3-for-6 passing for 14 yards in their preseason finale against the Los Angeles Rams.

While Sanders' play regressed, Gabriel's play only elevated in the preseason. He completed 13 of his 18 passes for 143 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles in his preseason debut, but also turned the ball over twice. He made up for it by going 12-for-19 for 129 yards and a touchdown without turning the ball over in the preseason finale.

The numbers look somewhat comparable, but when taking a closer look, it isn't really arguable when discussing which quarterback looked more NFL-ready.

Shedeur Sanders' flaws were apparent in the Browns preseason

The biggest red flag in Sanders' game at the collegiate level was that he held onto the ball for far too long. This might work at times in a weak-ish conference and with lesser talent on the field, but at the NFL level, holding onto the ball is a death sentence. Sure enough, Sanders held onto the ball for nearly double the amount of time on average than Gabriel, a fellow rookie.

The result of holding the ball too long is what we saw. Sanders displayed poor footwork and took a ton of sacks. He was sacked seven times, to be exact, and five times in Cleveland's third preseason game, one of which resulted in a fumble.

Sanders was sacked seven times despite throwing only 29 pass attempts this preseason. Only Clayton Tune of the Arizona Cardinals was sacked more times, and he threw 20 more pass attempts. Every quarterback who was sacked five or more times this preseason threw at least 10 more passes than Sanders, showing how alarming Sanders' woes in this area truly are.

Holding onto the ball too long can lead to all kinds of disasters. Sanders is going to have to get better reading the action pre-snap and figuring out what he wants to do before having to hold onto the ball as long as he has.

Tom Brady wasn't the most talented quarterback on the planet, but his ability to get rid of the football quickly played a major role in him becoming the NFL's GOAT. Sanders pairing his talent with quick decision-making could lead to an elevated role sooner rather than later, but he has to show that.

Shedeur Sanders is not the victim of any conspiracy theories

It'd be fun to see Shedeur play ASAP, but he's the only person who can be blamed for him being named Cleveland's QB3. There's no disputing he has talent — I'd even argue he has more of it than Gabriel — but more than just talent is needed to survive and thrive at the NFL level.

Sanders was selected in the fifth round of the NFL Draft, two rounds after Gabriel was chosen. That caused Sanders to begin the preseason in a hole, but strong play could've easily won him the backup job. Why should he have been handed the QB2 role when the guy who was drafted first outplayed him and looks more NFL ready?

Nobody is out to get Sanders, he simply has to play better. Fortunately, the Browns are keeping him around and he's got tons of time to learn from a Super Bowl winner and longtime NFL veteran on a team with extremely low expectations. Hopefully, Sanders can improve, particularly when it comes to his biggest flaw, and play himself into Cleveland's future. If he cannot learn to get rid of the ball quicker, though, his stay in Cleveland will be short and frustrating.