Where People Are Wrong About Shedeur Sanders, Kevin Stefanski Ahead of Sanders’ First Start

During Cleveland’s 23-16 loss to their division rival Baltimore Ravens in Week 11, Shedeur Sanders made his NFL debut after Dillon Gabriel exited with a concussion. Sanders played the entire second half for the Browns, completing four of his 16 pass attempts for 47 yards and an interception. Sanders added 16 yards on three rushes and was sacked twice for a loss of 27 yards as the Browns were shut out after halftime.

After his rough showing, the former Colorado star had his fair share of critics and defenders alike, but Kevin Stefanski’s postgame admission about his rookie signal-caller drew the most attention. 

Stefanski said that some of Sanders’ lack of success could be due to the fact that the second half was Sanders’ first time getting reps with the starting offense since he was drafted. The admission sent NFL fans into a frenzy, and many couldn’t help but feel Stefanski never set Sanders up for success. 

However, Stefanski defended his comments. The Browns’ head coach said because Gabriel is the starter and also a rookie like Sanders, he’s been trying to give Gabriel the most reps possible in order to help his development and rapport with the starting offense in order to give the team the best chance to win each week.

Multiple prominent figures in the media had Stefanski’s back as well. On his show The Herd, Colin Cowherd explained to his listeners that during the NFL regular season, the starter always takes the first team reps in practice unless he’s injured.

Similar sentiments were echoed by former NFL players throughout the week, such as future Hall of Fame center and current ESPN NFL analyst Jason Kelce.

“Everybody’s making a big deal that he doesn’t get first-team reps,” Kelce said on Wednesday’s episode of his “New Heights” podcast. “This is the way it works, people. The backup QB doesn’t get reps. There’s not enough reps that the starters can get. That’s part of the circumstances.”

Former journeyman backup quarterback Luke McCown also chimed in on the debate on X.

“The only time mid round pick rookies and backups get meaningful reps is in training camp, and they are never with the ones unless you are competing or starting that next preseason game,” McCown wrote. “For the most part that’s are 30-40 live full speed reps of the actual gameplan practiced on Wed, Thursday and Friday in the NFL.. these all go to the starting QB.. he’s the one that has to be to get ready.”

But these media members, along with others who defended Stefanski’s comments, are missing one big thing:

The Browns had a four-way competition in camp between Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders to see who would be named Cleveland’s starting quarterback.

Flacco won the competition, while Pickett was traded to the Raiders, Gabriel was named backup and Sanders was named third string. Flacco was later traded to the Bengals in Week 6, making Gabriel the starting quarterback and Sanders the backup.

Nevertheless, very shortly after he was drafted, Sanders was obviously competing to be the Browns’ top quarterback. According to McCown’s post on X (which, remember, reiterated that he’s been there, done that), this is a situation where Sanders should’ve gotten meaningful reps with the starting offense. 

So why did his reps with the top offense since being drafted come in Week 11? How could Sanders have a fair shot at earning the starting job in camp without getting first team reps until now?

The problem was never that Sanders wasn’t splitting first team reps in some fashion with Gabriel in the middle of the season. It was that he didn’t get these reps while he was legitimately competing to win the starting job.

That’s where Kevin Stefanski failed to set Shedeur Sanders up for success. 

That’s where people defending Stefanski’s admission are wrong.