Colorado Buffaloes football's Shedeur Sanders isn't close to the Cleveland Browns' starting quarterback spot and needs a lot of things to happen in training camp for that to change.
Colorado Buffaloes football legend Shedeur Sanders is very far from first-team status, let alone the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback spot. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler was the latest to confirm Sanders’ fourth-place standing in the Browns’ four-man QB competition.
Fowler threw the usual caveat of playing with third-teamers onto the positive intel of Sanders throwing the ball well during minicamp.
“Shedeur Sanders did impress in the spring... He was willing to throw the ball in tight windows. He was accurate, but when you ask people with Cleveland, they do bring some caution there. We're like, look, 'He was working against the third team a lot. Not much of a pass rush.' He's got a ways to go and so that will probably show early on in camp,” Fowler said on NFL Live.
It might be fair to say Sanders is closer to starting for the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts than he is the Browns.
Especially after Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein dropped a damning bombshell about Sanders’ OTAs and minicamp: Kevin Stefanski gave Sanders a smaller playbook than what Dillon Gabriel, Kenny Pickett, and Joe Flacco got against the third-team defenses the “Grown QB” faced.
“The Browns stunned the NFL world selecting Sanders in the fifth round after taking Gabriel in the third. But they didn’t necessarily veer from their principles in the selection,” Epstein wrote.
“Sanders arrived in Cleveland after completing 70.1% of passes for 14,347 yards, 134 touchdowns and 27 interceptions in four total seasons across Jackson State and Colorado. His college experience is deep also, but there is belief among many in the NFL that its volume and diversity trails what Gabriel learned in six years. Browns coaches did not ask Sanders to integrate the same volume of playbook during minicamp as his counterparts, reflected when he did not take first-team snaps as the other three did. Sanders’ arm strength and playmaking impressed on the concepts he did run.”
Gabriel is far closer to the starting spot. Stefanski is not going to split regular-season reps between more than three QBs. And probably not even three. Preseason snaps late in decided games may be the best experience he'll get for a while.
Sanders is not in a good place during the Browns' training camp’s opening days.
Another insider has confirmed it.
Category: General Sports
