CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns organized team activities have been open to the media for two practices, and the Shedeur Sanders hype train is already off the rails.
Thanks in part to quarterback stats tracking during voluntary OTAs — with no pads, no Myles Garrett, and very fews apples-to-apples comparisons — some in the national media, have already either called the quarterback competition in Sanders’ favor or reported that he’s got a bona fide chance to be the opening day starter.
Granted, Sanders has looked good in the two open practices, with plenty of completions, his trademark accuracy, excellent touch on the ball, and some nice touchdown passes.
But the four-way quarterback competition among Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel and Sanders is nowhere close to being over. In fact, it’s barely begun.
On Wednesday, for instance, Sanders ran with the fourth team again, and was the only one of the four QBs not to get any reps with the first-team offense, or against the first-team defense. He also conducted a set of modified 7-on-7s alone on one of the fields, getting extra reps and coaching, while the other three quarterbacks worked on the opposite field. This is presumably to help get him ready for the high-intensity mandatory minicamp next week, where he might have to face the likes of Pro Bowlers Garrett and Denzel Ward if they give him any first-team reps.
He did get his first snaps during an open practice in 11-on-11s on Wednesday, and made the most of them. After slipping and falling on a play-action bootleg attempt on his first rep, he came right back with a nice completion down the left side to undrafted rookie Gage Larvadain. On his final rep, he lasered a shot on a skinny post near the back of the end zone to first-year receiver Kaden Davis for what called a TD on the field. But photo evidence showed his second foot was out.
Regardless, it was an excellent pass from Sanders, who’s making tremendous progress in learning the scheme.
“He’s worked his tail off,” offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said Wednesday. “He’s really put in a lot of work as all those guys are, but you could tell on the mental side of the game and learning the system and calling it and having that rhythm to it, he’s put a lot of work and time and effort into that. And then when you do that, the game starts to slow down and you can focus on finding completions. And he’s done a nice job of that as camp’s progressed.”
But Sanders, passed over by the Browns six times in the draft until they traded up to draft him at No. 144, is still a long way from venturing into Baltimore in Week 2 and trying to beat the AFC North champion Ravens and their vaunted defense, or handling a grueling stretch of 5-of-6 games on the road beginning in Week 4.
Working with and against only backups, Sanders hasn’t had Mason Graham’s hands up in front of him to swat down a ball, and hasn’t had to release it with Garrett bearing down on him. He hasn’t had to squeeze it into tight coverage with four-time Pro Bowler Ward blanketing the receiver.
By the same token, he hasn’t had a chance to throw it to Jerry Jeudy, Cedric Tillman or David Njoku, who hasn’t been at OTAs. Maybe he’ll dazzle the coaches once he gets behind the likes of Joel Bitonio and Jack Conklin and has ample time to heave it downfield.
But the core issue with Sanders has nothing to do with how he looks in shorts and no pads in the absence of a pass rush. It’s what he can do in the pros when the pressure is on and the ball must come out. At Colorado, he took too many sacks — an FBS high 94 in two seasons — and drifted backwards too often when the ball should’ve thrown to a target or tossed away. At times, he needed to let a play die with perhaps less regard for his FBS-high 74% completion percentage.
Sanders throws with great anticipation and was arguably the most accurate quarterback in the class. But even he knows he must reduce the negative plays to succeed at this level and is working very hard to do so. The good thing is that he has the work ethic and football acumen to improve, and he’s been in the building at all hours studying film. He’s also using the Browns’ virtual reality platform — something the Commanders’ Jayden Daniels relies on — to speed up processing.
He’s coming up the learning curve quickly, and at least on Wednesday, was more efficient than Gabriel, their third-round pick. But Gabriel also spent some time with the first-team offense vs. the first-team defense, and it’s not a perfect side-by-side comparison.
Besides, both of the rookies will have to beat out the veterans to win the job, and that will be no small task. Pickett is heading into his fourth season with a 15-10 mark, and Flacco is heading into his 18th season with 191 starts and a Super Bowl MVP under his belt. He also has a huge head start in the system from having played here in 2023, going 4-1 and averaging more than 323 yards passing a game. Both Pickett and Flacco are AFC-North savvy and know what it takes to win in Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
If Sanders continues to progress at his current clip, he’ll earn some first-team reps not only against the Browns defense but that of the Panthers and Super Bowl champion Eagles, both of whom the Browns will conduct joint practices with during camp. Those reps will go a long way toward determining his readiness for the season, as will his performance in preseason games, when he’ll have to avoid the sacks.
Sanders has been fun to watch in rookie minicamp and OTAs, but the superlatives about him being head and shoulders above the other quarterbacks, or running away with the competition at this point are over-the-top.
He’s already suffered one precipitous fall as a rookie from the presumptive top of the draft to the fifth round. Maybe he shouldn’t be set up so soon for another possible tumble from slam-dunk, sure-fire QB1 on opening day to a backup spot on the depth chart.
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