As the Browns continue to lose, pressure will mount for Cleveland to start QB Shedeur Sanders over Dillon Gabriel. Even before they benched Joe Flacco for Gabriel, Sanders was still the focal point of discussion and media speculation. Now 1-3 with Gabriel and with the third-round pick coming off a bad game, that conversation will intensify.
And add to that the fact that the Browns are entering a bye week, which is typically a time for teams to make changes. By all indications, they do not see swapping one rookie quarterback for another on the agenda. At least not now, as Sanders bides his time, silently mouthing to himself.
Sanders didn’t even dress on Sunday due to a back injury, Bailey Zappe active as the backup to Gabriel instead. But he was a gametime decision, so there’s no reason to think it would keep him out of their next game. According to HC Kevin Stefanski, though, and even owner Jimmy Haslam, nothing will change.
“I just want to make the point that we just have to be better in every area, and we’ll look at everything we do”, Stefanski said after Sunday’s loss, via Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot, “including how we’re putting these guys in position to succeed. Are we [the coaches] doing enough with the quarterback position? Do we need to do a better job? And I think I know the answer is yes. Cabot shared that Stefanski said they were sticking with Dillon Gabriel and not turning to Shedeur Sanders.
Haslam also reportedly weighed in, according to Ian Rapoport. He said they want to see more of Gabriel and that they don’t have a large enough sample size yet. He added of Sanders, “Shedeur’s making progress in practice, so we’re going continue to work with both of those guys”.
As if you didn’t know, the Browns selected both Dillion Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders in the 2025 NFL Draft. They took Gabriel in the third, but as Sanders continued to fall, they caught him in the fifth. While Sanders showed flashes in the offseason, Gabriel won the backup job to Joe Flacco. Later, after benching Flacco, they traded him to the Bengals, making Sanders the backup to Gabriel.
There we remain, for now, but one wonders whether that changes if they continue to lose. Gabriel was the one of the most “NFL-ready” quarterbacks to come out of college in a while. Sanders had a lot in his game to work on, so there you have the coveted “upside”.
Perhaps more importantly for the franchise right now, in Sanders you also have marketing and interest. Nobody cares about Dillon Gabriel, quite frankly, if he’s not going to win. Unless that variable changes, he is just the guy who is playing ahead of Deion’s boy. It’s not fair, but it is reality as perceived by the outside world.
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