The Cleveland Browns have finally turned to Shedeur Sanders and with the excitement comes a lot of expectations. Sanders is known to be vocal so it wasn’t a shock for him to have some unique words ahead of his first NFL start, a week after he made his NFL debut for an injured Dillon Gabriel. Gabriel didn’t clear concussion protocol, which paved the way for Sanders to start in Las Vegas.
“I’m who they been looking for,” Sanders told CBS’s Tiffany Blackmon just minutes before Sunday’s game.
For Cleveland’s sake, he better be right and he better live up to those lofty expectations. The Browns have been desperate for a franchise, game-changing quarterback, and have yet to find that person. Sanders could be that, but we won’t know until at least next season whether he is or not.
How Shedeur Sanders can prove that he’s who Cleveland has been looking for
The one thing the Browns need is consistency under center. Sanders is the only quarterback of the last 18 to start as a rookie to win in his NFL debut. That’s a good start, but let's contextualize Sunday. The Browns offense went limp after the first quarter and they beat the Las Vegas Raiders of all teams. You have to start somewhere though and that’s a good start for Sanders. He did bounce back in the fourth quarter with his first career passing touchdown.
He completed the two longest plays of the season — a 52-yard pass to Isaiah Bond and a 66-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Sampson — and brought life to an offense that just couldn’t move the ball this season. Sanders proved he deserves to start at least the next game and makes the argument he should finish out the season. The offense looks different and honestly, better, with him in and that’s hard to deny. But one good game doesn’t earn you a starting job.
Sanders proclaimed he’s who the Browns are looking for, which is a reliable quarterback under center that will elevate this offense. They haven’t had that since Baker Mayfield. Sanders knows how to talk the talk, now he needs to back it up.
Why the Cleveland Browns need to give Shedeur Sanders a fair shot
Entering the year, though Sanders didn’t get the opportunities with the first team like every other quarterback that was rostered on this team ahead of him, he’s showing why the potential is there. Let’s not forget, he was considered the second-best and even best quarterback to some after the 2024 college football season ended.
Now that the Browns are finally unleashing him, you see why he had a lot of hype coming out of college. The adjustment will be rigorous, but the Browns have to allow Sanders to grow this season with pretty much nothing else to play for. He can force their hand by continuing to improve beyond his debut.
It makes too much sense for the Browns to give Sanders the rest of the season to figure out if he’s the answer. At this point, they’ve already seen what Gabriel is going to be and he’s not the answer. We don’t know if Sanders is, but we have to figure that out sooner rather than later. Sunday was a step in the right direction, especially starting 1-0 as a starter.
What more does Cleveland need to see from Sanders to know he deserves more than one game to prove he’s the one? He wants to be the quarterback of the future for the Browns and now it’s the organization’s turn to show just how much they believe in him too.