Despite his poor NFL debut on Sunday, Browns QB Shedeur Sanders is in line to make his first NFL start next week, according to Mary Kay Cabot for Cleveland.com. The backup to fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel, Sanders went just 4-for-16 for 47 yards with an interception. He and the Browns squandered a six-point lead over the Ravens.
#Browns Shedeur Sanders is expected to start Sunday's game in Las Vegas with Dillon Gabriel in the concussion protocol. Barring something unexpected, Sanders will make his starting debut, becoming the 42nd #Browns starter since 1999.
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) November 17, 2025
But with Gabriel in the concussion protocol, Cabot writes, Sanders is the next man up and will start, “barring something unexpected”. As a rookie, Gabriel needs all the practice reps he can get. He won’t be able to get them in the concussion protocol, so Cleveland’s hesitance to play him under those circumstances is understandable.
The Browns selected Dillon Gabriel in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth. Gabriel was consistently ahead of Sanders throughout the offseason process, and earned the backup job to Joe Flacco. After they traded Kenny Pickett, Sanders defaulted to the third-string quarterback.
Several weeks into the season, after benching Flacco, the Browns traded him to the quarterback-needy Bengals. Even then, they were somewhat hesitant to name Sanders Gabriel’s backup, with Bailey Zappe also in the mix.
They eventually did name Sanders the backup, and he has served in that role since, when healthy. On Sunday, with Gabriel suffering a concussion in-game, he had to make his debut. Despite some in the media like Josina Anderson contorting their brains to comical proportions to make excuses, he simply did not play well, at all.
That’s hardly shocking for a rookie backup making his NFL debut with no first-team reps under his belt. It’s entirely possible, and one would hope likely, that Shedeur Sanders plays dramatically better with a full week of preparation as the starter, throwing the ball to people with whom he will actually play inside of an NFL stadium. None of that, however, excuses his poor play this past week.
Cabot writes that Dillon Gabriel is “not expected to be cleared in time to prepare for the Raiders game”, currently remaining in the concussion protocol. She also notes that the team will not open Deshaun Watson’s practice window this week, leaving them with two quarterbacks.
Shedeur Sanders is, of course, one of them, Zappe the other. The Browns, at least, now have a full work week to prepare Sanders to start this game. While he has been a polarizing figure since before he was even in the NFL, he does have talent. Maybe note the first-round talent so many anticipated, but he is not as bad as he played on Sunday.
The Browns and their fans have been down in the dumps for so long that it’s understandable that they would want to attach their hopes to an “upside” player like Shedeur Sanders. As things currently stand, they should get their first full taste of that experience next weekend.
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