Shedeur Sanders saw his first meaningful NFL action last Sunday when he stepped in for an injured Dillon Gabriel. Things did not go well for the fifth-round pick, who was only able to complete four of his 16 passes while accumulating 47 yards and an interception. The Browns’ lead he inherited evaporated down the stretch, allowing the Ravens to leave town with a 23–16 victory.
With Gabriel once again unable to go this coming Sunday against the Raiders, Sanders will get his first opportunity to start. And cellar-dwelling Las Vegas should provide an opportunity for him to do better than in his first foray.
Sanders, a ubiquitous topic on all the sports talk shows, continues to be under intense scrutiny with every step of his journey thoroughly documented and debated. Today’s topic on First Take was whether Sanders’s first start was of the make-or-break variety.
Stephen A. Smith believes it is.
“As far as his future in Cleveland, it’s this Sunday,” Smith said. “He cannot look like trash.”
.@stephenasmith believes this is a make-or-break start for Shedeur Sanders this weekend.
"As far as his future in Cleveland, it's this Sunday. He cannot look like trash." pic.twitter.com/8JziDhktpO
— First Take (@FirstTake) November 21, 2025
Those are enormous stakes right out of the gate. Smith’s debate partner Dan Orlovsky simply could not believe what he was hearing as the best talker in all of sports went on for over two minutes on the topic.
“I’m not telling you you’ve got to go out there and look like a star or anything like that,” Smith said. “But he cannot look completely clueless. He cannot look lost. It cannot replicate what he did that past weekend and he’s still going to have a future in Cleveland. I don't believe it for one second.”
Smith may very well be correct. We’ll never know if Sanders plays well. But even then ... what about the next time he completes 25% of his passes and looks lost? What about the next time an actually good team gets the best of him? How much time does one good showing against a weaker side really earn him?
If you step back for a second and consider all that’s at play, it is wild that a team would put so much stock in what is an entirely meaningless game for a quarterback making his first attempt at serving as starter under center. It raises questions of why a team would even waste a draft pick on someone who would eventually be given a one-day tryout at some point this year.
But then again, this is Sanders we're talking about here. His career simply will not mirror the career of any other NFL player. It’s already been stranger and far more of a media circus that almost any that came before. So maybe this all makes sense.
More NFL on Sports Illustrated
Start off your day with SI:CYMI. dark. FREE NEWSLETTER. SI BTN Newsletter