Ever since the Cleveland Browns selected Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, there has been no shortage of attention placed on the relationship between head coach Kevin Stefanski and the former Colorado star.
But while all of that seemed like an afterthought after Sanders helped lead the Browns to a 24-10 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in the first start of his NFL career on Sunday, Stefanski’s postgame speech has now reignited the conversation.
As he does after every victory, the 2-time NFL Coach of the Year singled out several key contributors in the Cleveland locker room. That included Myles Garrett, who he presented with his lone game ball after the superstar defensive end broke his own single-season franchise sack record, which now sits at 18.
That’s not to say to Stefanski completely ignored his rookie quarterback’s contributions.
“Another rookie his first start — nice job, Shedeur. Well done,” he said, pointing to the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the year.
Stefanski’s acknowledgment of Sanders, however, seemingly didn’t sit well with two of the rookie signal-caller’s most vocal supporters. After watching the clip of the locker room speech on Sunday night’s episode of Nightcap, both Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson took issue with what they viewed as a head coach minimizing his starting quarterback’s performance.
“So hold on. A guy’s making his first start. A guy that you didn’t really want to start. A guy that you didn’t even really want in your organization. And that’s all he gets? A ‘great job,'” Sharpe said. “He don’t get no game ball?”
“No, he doesn’t get no game ball, Unc. That wasn’t his pick,” Johnson replied. “That’s not what they want. They don’t want him to succeed. You know that.”
The former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver proceeded to state that Stefanski’s preferred quarterback is still Dillon Gabriel, who had started the Browns’ previous six games before exiting last week’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens with a concussion. Johnson also noted that Sanders was the first Cleveland rookie quarterback to win his first start with the franchise since Eric Zeier did so in 1995.
“That ain’t worth a game ball, Ocho?” Sharpe asked. “… this notion that it was just a ho-hum performance — the guy got no snaps with the guys that he played with today until Wednesday of last week. And he does that on the road in a hostile environment, and all you got for him is that?”
Shannon Sharpe and Ochocinco go off on the Browns’ coach for not giving Shedeur Sanders the game ball
(Via: Nightcap) pic.twitter.com/zNcHoXkppf
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) November 24, 2025
It’s worth noting that Stefanski indicated he only had one game ball to give out, and if anyone was going to get it, it would be tough to make a case against Garrett. And while Sanders certainly did make a few impressive plays and did a good job of playing within himself, the advanced numbers indicate that his performance was more solid than spectacular.
Ultimately, there are a lot of aspects about the Browns’ handling of Sanders since selecting him seven months ago that could be questioned. But criticizing Stefanski for not giving the rookie quarterback his lone game ball after his star defensive player had yet another historic performance feels like a bit of a reach.