Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders has become a polarizing figure, for a variety of reasons. Right or wrong, logical or illogical, fair or unfair, Shedeur has fans and detractors.
The fans are celebrating his performance in Cleveland’s preseason openers. The detractors are quick to call what he did meaningless.
And, of course, if Shedeur had struggled, the haters would say he stinks.
After Friday night’s game, Shedeur shared his own feelings about how things went.
“Overall,” he told reporters, “[I felt like me out there](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpHD6TjKSkY), and I couldn’t do it, of course, without the time, I couldn’t do it without the playcalling, I couldn’t do it without anything. So I’m just thankful to even be able to have the joy of just being on the field overall, then carrying the responsibility of doing the right thing, so that’s two badges under my belt already. . . .
“I wasn’t nervous, so I didn’t really have too much adrenaline. It was just getting comfortable. That’s all it is. Like, there’s plenty of games before, like, I was nervous, but I feel like I knew the answers to the test. So it’s like, when you feel unprepared, then, you know, when you don’t feel like you’re ready for the moment. I know I’m ready for the moment. Did I play up to par? No, I don’t feel like I did. But overall, the main goal was to win. And that’s honestly what we did.”
Sanders also was asked about the narrative that his limited reps as the fourth-string quarterback wasn’t setting him up to succeed.
“I think overall in life, I don’t want anybody to make excuses. You know, I feel like making excuses for whatever situation is, like you ask God for something and it’s there, then you gonna complain about it? So it’s like it’s two ways you can look at it. You can look at it and be thankful, and take full advantage of the opportunity, or you can look at it like, ‘Dang, this is what I’m asking for and I’m not prepared.’ . . . I’ll say I’ve been able to sleep good at night, you know, knowing I was playing. . . . I just prepared it as normal. But it was definitely that switch that kicked in. . . . Ball is ball. . . . Ball \[has\] never been a problem for me. It’s, you know, whatever optics or whatever everybody makes up after outside the game. But in the game, you kind of know who I am.”
He has a long way to go to earn the chance to do what he did last night in a game that counts. And, obviously, it will be different when he’s facing an opponent’s top defense after it has had time to devise a specific and detailed plan for stopping him.
Still, to the extent that he slid in the draft because he treated the pre-draft process as if he were being recruited and not being interviewed, Shedeur is treating the preseason process the right way. He knows he has to prove himself, whenever and wherever he gets the chance to do so.
Last night, he got an extended chance to do so. And he made the most of it. To the dismay of his detractors.