BEREA, Ohio — Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who heads into the final preseason game Saturday against the Rams still as the fourth-team quarterback, is adjusting to life as a backup.
It’s unfamiliar territory for him, something he hasn’t experienced before Covid hit in 2020.
“My ability are my abilities,” he said. “When God decides to take it away from me, that’s the decision. But I think vs. anybody, I always pick me. So at this point it’s about in due time, whenever it’s my time.”
Sanders, recovering from his strained oblique muscle suffered before the joint practice against the Eagles last week, will play third in the preseason finale Saturday afternoon against the Rams behind Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel.
Sanders hopes to build on his excellent start against the Panthers, but it might be a little while before he gets to raise his wrist in a real game to show that it’s Sanders time. With Flacco starting the season, Kenny Pickett waiting for his turn as the backup, and Gabriel on the depth chart at No. 3, Sanders might not set foot in a real game until somewhere down the stretch, after the leaves have turned and the first flurries have swirled.
It’s not what he hoped for at the start of the pre-draft process, but tumbling to the fifth round of the draft brought down to earth with a thud. Fortunately for him, he’s kept his chin up through the pivot, and has also had help from teammates such as fifth-string quarterback Tyler Huntley, who’s been a backup since signing with the Ravens as an undrafted rookie in 2020.
“I’m thankful that Huntley is here,” Sanders said. “I would say because he gave me a perspective of quarterback that I feel like I needed. I feel like him being here overall, I feel like God sent him here for a reason, honestly, just to talk and to be like a mentor towards me and his career also. Being in that backup role, he faced that also in his career and he just gave me the mentality on what I need to do and how I need to stay on top of everything.”
Sanders has harkened back to his Covid year at Jackson State in 2022, when he was ineligible to play because he had graduated and had to live the life of a backup.
“It’s even some things I forgot,” he said. “I’ve been starting so long ever since COVID year. I haven’t really not started since COVID year. and I ran scout team there and then sometimes you got to find the joy and the fun in it because it is fun. You going out there against the first defense and you out there with a chip, you playing with guys, you playing with receivers that trying to get out there also. So I feel like all that stuff is fun and you just got to make the best of any situation you in.”
He knows, however, that he must stay ready, because his number can get called at anytime. Pickett is still dealing with his hamstring injury, and Gabriel has had one of his own. Even though Gabriel might be pressed into service as the No. 2 for the opener, Sanders must have a sense of urgency.
“I would say I learned life in a different perspective,” he said. “That’s why I come here. I’m happy, I always got good energy because I’m blessed to come out here every day. Regardless of situation, regardless of anything, I know my time, whenever that is, I’ll be ready for it and I’m going to embrace that. But in due time I got many things I need to fix, many things I need to work on, and I’m not oblivious to that. So all I look at as I’m getting more time to cook, I’m getting more time to warm up. That’s all it is.”
When he looks back to that year at Jackson State, he ran the scout team like he was preparing for the Super Bowl.
“My purpose was go in there and just do everything I can on scout team each and every day,” he said. “So that’s my reflection. That’s how I’m able to get through any situation. Anything that life throws at me or whatever I’m going through is because I feel like I’ve done it in a similar form. I don’t like to be negative too much of everything. I know everybody works hard. A lot of people work hard. Life is hard, everything, so who am I to complain? When you sit back and you think of everything in the grand scheme of things. So I don’t even really try to even get down. And whenever I even feel a little bit down, I just constantly remind myself, you can’t be feeling that way.”
He’s not viewing this preseason finale as a chance to win the backup job, but more so an opportunity just to show out on each play. In the preseason opener vs. the Panthers, he lit it up with two beautiful touchdown passes to Kaden Davis, and put three TDs on the board in his nine drives. It was a head down and wrist up kind of night.
“Whenever it’s time for me to get out there and play, I’m going to play,” he said. “Whenever it’s time for the lights to come on, I’m going to do my thing. I’m not concerned about when it is. I’m not concerned about how many reps I’m getting at this point. It is what it is. I know when the lights come on, everything going on, when the pressure’s on, you know who I am.”
He’s Shedeur Sanders, otherwise known as Legendary, and just waiting to show it.
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