CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Shedeur Sanders strutted into Bank America Stadium with a boombox held by Tony Brown playing Sanders’ own unreleased music, wearing dark glasses, and his trademark diamond-encrusted “Legendary” pendant around his neck.
He looked a lot more like a Prime Time superstar than the fifth-round, fourth-string quarterback that he is during the Browns’ 30-10 victory.
His dad, Deion Sanders — Coach Prime himself — was ready for the show. Earlier that afternoon, Deion predicted that the Browns would have to rethink their four-way quarterback competition by Saturday.
“It’s going to be a problem after tonight,” Sanders said during a press conference at Colorado. “I promise you that.”
By halftime, Deion was looking prescient. By then, Shedeur Sanders had thrown two beautiful, gutsy, touchdown passes to first-year receiver Kaden Davis, who made like Pro Bowler Jerry Jeudy on the two scores. He completed 11 of 18 passes for 103 yards in the first half with the two TDs en route to a 113.9 passer rating.
By the end end of the third quarter, Sanders gave way to Tyler Huntley with a stat line that had to make the Browns proud: 14 of 23 for 138 yards with the two TDs and no interceptions en route to a 106.8 rating. Overall, he put three touchdowns on the board on his nine drives, including two that converted takeaways.
He played with all the swagger and moxie he did in college and lived up to his vow to show out when the lights came on.
A perfectionist, he was hard on himself during the telecast while Huntley was on the field.
“I don’t feel like I was sharp at all, honestly,” he said. “I think I was OK today, but you know, the next opportunity I get I just, you know, got to build on this one.”
Does he think he earned more reps?
“I honestly don’t know and I don’t really care, you know?” he said. “Whenever it’s my turn I’ve just got to take advantage of it. I feel like today I did some good, some bad and I know moving forward I won’t make the same mistakes twice.”
He did allow that he put points on the board during his stint.
“I’ll say the most important thing of being a quarterback is leading the team,” he said. “I’ll say definitely the scoreboard. I think we did that pretty good and just, you know, just being consistent.
“Even though if things going our way and not going our way, being able to bounce back and not stay in the hole, you know, being a quarterback is going to be ups, downs, it’s going to be pros, cons, everything. You’ve just got to stay level-headed to it.
Sanders declined to handicap the four-way quarterback competition in the wake of his start.
“It was just, have an opportunity to get out here and play, you know, so I’m out the game now, and I really didn’t want to get out, but, you know, it’s football,” Sanders said. “So when they say you’re done, you’re done. But I would say just having the opportunity to get out there and, you know, just be free. So, like, when I just started running around and everything, like, that was so fun. Like, it was so fun doing that.”
He certainly made his lifelong coach and papa proud, and kept himself firmly in the four-way quarterback competition despite still not getting any reps with the first-team offense.
After each of the touchdown passes, Deion posted exuberantly on X. After the first one, the 7-yarder to a double-covered Davis on the left side of the end zone, Deion posted “Yes, Lawd Yes!!!” After the second one, the 12-yard sliding catch in the end zone by Davis with cornerback Shemar Barthomolew draped all over him on a post route, Sanders posted “Oh Yeah What now!!” And “God is so Good.”
“What now” might just be what the Browns are asking themselves after Sanders’ sensational debut. He waited patiently through the first 11 practices of camp for a chance to show what he could do, and never complained. Deep down, he knew he had more to offer than fourth-team reps with backups, but he waited patiently for his moment.
Deion wasn’t the only superstar weighing in on Shedeur’s magnificent performance during the nationally televised game on NFL Network that will have the hype-train rolling along.
None other the King — LeBron James — was duly impressed.
“That young (prince emoji) looking good out there!” James posted on X. “Keep going UP!!! HEAD down on the grind and HEAD high to the most high.”
Anticipating the naysayers, James jumped their route.
“And I don’t wanna hear that “It’s only preseason” bs. Cause if he was out there not going in y’all would be on his (expletive) about it! So give credit and grace lames.”
Joe Flacco, who’s been taking all of the first-team reps, praised the rookie who’s picked his brains regularly throughout camp. Sanders got the start almost by default, with Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel both nursing hamstring injuries, and the Browns not wanting to play their 40-year-old possible Week 1 starter to set foot in this game.
“He’s doing a good job tonight,” Flacco said during the first half of the telecast. “The thing that I’m kind of happy that he’s doing is he’s getting the ball out of his hands early in the early down. He’s also been able to show that he can move around a little bit and do those things. But I think when he’s had to get the ball out of his hands, he’s done that.”
Flacco went over to Sanders on the bench after almost every drive, offering encouragement and congratulations.
“That’s one of the things I’ll give him a lot of credit (for),” Flacco said. “The moment is not too big. He’s able to kind of slow things down and go at his pace and operate the way he wants to. So it’s impressive.”
Working with Browns backups against the Panthers starters on the first two drives, Sanders went three-and-out on his opening possession, with a high pass going off Diontae Johnson’s hands, and Davis not running his third-down route deep enough.
Undaunted, Sanders stormed back out on his second drive and found running back Trayveon Williams for a 15-yard catch-and-run. That seems to settle him down some, and he shook off for a 10-yard scramble and slide. He eluded another sack and overthrew Dylan Sampson, before finding Jamari Thrash for an 11-yard catch, a yard shy of the first down.
On fourth and 1, he reverted to his old behavior of retreating, the one he’s been working so hard to correct, and threw incomplete to his go-to guy Luke Floriea to turn the ball over on downs.
But after Nathaniel Watson recovered a muff punt to start the Browns at the Carolina 10 at the end of the first half, Sanders stepped up on the first play of the second quarter and lifted a pass over a defender in the end zone to thread the needle in traffic to Davis. Afterwards, Sanders ran into the end zone to celebrate with Davis.
On his next drive. Sanders found Gage Larvadain for a 19-yard pass over the middle on a dig route, and was almost picked off on pass to Larvadain. He also retreated again on a drive to end it, but came back strong on the next one with the second TD pass to Davis to make it 14-7.
On that one, he rolled right and fit it perfectly into a sliding Davis. Key play on the drive was a beautiful throw on the move to Floriea down the right side, where he made a spectacular one-handed 29-yard grab. It was vintage Sanders accuracy, which has been his superpower in the competition.
Sanders came through again on his final drive after safety Nik Needham’s interception off Andy Dalton started the Browns at Carolina’s 43. He hit tight end Brendan Bates with a 25-yard pass to the 7, and Larvadain scored on a four-yard jet sweep three plays later.
Huntley came in and put a TD pass of his own on the board, hitting Cade McDonald with a 6-yarder to cap a 10-play drive and make it 30-7. The Panthers tacked on a late field to produce the final margin.
The narrative heading into the game was that perhaps the Browns were setting Sanders up to fail. He knew better. He knew he just needed an opportunity to be Legendary and show the world what he could after tumbling to the fifth round of the draft.
“Sorry, Pops,” he said during the broadcast. “I ain’t do what I was supposed to do fully, but, you know, we, we’ll live to see another opportunity.”
Kevin Stefanski wanted to be surprised by his quarterbacks in this competition, and Sanders delivered.
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