Football is BACK!
Shedeur Sanders DAZZLED as his FIRST START with the Cleveland Brown’s PRESEASON opener!
Sanders completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdown passes in the first half to Kaden Davis on Friday night as the Cleveland Browns defeated the Carolina Panthers 30-10.
Sanders, a highly-rated draft prospect who endured a dramatic fall into the fifth round in April, entered the game fourth on the Browns depth chart, but was pressed into starting duty because of injuries. His status could change after he led three touchdown drives in nearly three full quarters of action, showing tremendous poise and awareness in the pocket.
Sanders said he’s not worried about how the depth chart shakes out.
“When I get out there it’s just doing what I gotta do,” Sanders said. “Everything else is not in my hands, so I don’t worry about it. I just don’t think that deep into everything because it’s nothing you’re gonna be able to control. So why put energy in something that you can’t control?”
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said he was pleased with how Sanders played, but said it’s too early to know if he will get more reps in practice or start the next preseason game against the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in what is viewed as an open quarterback competition.
“I’m honestly not focused there,” Stefanski said. “I think the guys need to continue to earn their roles. That’s what these guys are doing.”
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam even suggested while speaking to reporters last month that the team had no intention of drafting Sanders after the controversial quarterback shockingly fell out of the third round April 25.
“If you had told me Friday night [Day 2 of the NFL Draft], driving home, ‘Y’all are gonna pick Shedeur,’ I would have said, ‘That’s not happening,’” Haslam said Tuesday. “But we had a conversation early that morning [Day 3], and we had a conversation later that day, and we had the right people involved in that conversation.”
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