Shedeur Gets Chance to Shine or Suck
On Friday night, the Cleveland Browns' 2025 season kicks off with a preseason game against the Carolina Panthers, and the starting quarterback for the matchup between the Dawgs and Carolina Kitties, fifth-round selection Shedeur Sanders of Colorado, could have future implications on a somewhat massive scale. Or not, who knows.
It was reported by Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot on Tuesday that Shedeur will be tapped to start preseason Week 1, a vault up the preseason “unofficial” depth chart. Head coach Kevin Stefanski confirmed that report on Wednesday, along with the note that fellow quarterbacks Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and Dillon Gabriel will *not* see playing time in Carolina. Recently signed career backup Tyler “Snoop” Huntley will be the other QB in the game. Exactly how many possessions Sanders will run the offense remains to be seen, but Huntley was brought in specifically for this week and scenario: expendable fodder for rookies and/or long-shot Panthers trying to make a name for themselves late in PWeek 1.
Cleveland has been stingy with the first-team reps for Sanders, giving the main load to Flacco and Pickett, with Gabriel being sprinkled in more frequently than the fifth-round pick. And that makes sense: Flacco is the penciled-in starter for Week 1 at home against Cincinnati and the #PickettPropaganda being divulged about his “good-to-great” training camp has him ticketed elsewhere around the league. That leaves Gabriel and Sanders to pick up the scraps and use the “Hungry Dawg” reps, practice reps at the end of scrimmages and workouts for rookies, to show team officials and decision-makers who stands out among the young signal callers.
Where Gabriel and Sanders rank in the braintrust of Andrew Berry and Stefanski is unknown and could be fluid. Gabriel was picked ahead of Sanders, but the pedigree and body of work from Sanders stand up to the third-rounder. Shedeur has a chance to step ahead of Gabriel and possibly even Pickett with a good showing against the ones and twos and likely threes of Carolina. Is it because of injuries that he gets this shot? Absolutely. But that doesn’t make it less of an opportunity.
It should be mentioned that I am Shedeur stan. Coming out, it felt like another LaMelo Ball situation: talented player with obvious holes in his game gets elevated because of his surname and doesn’t live up to potential. But he really seems to have Lonzo’d himself into the hearts and minds of the Dawg Pound faithful. He’s been showing up for the community writ large, speaking at high schools without notice, holding charity events for displaced families from an apartment fire, and answering questions about his famous father with aplomb. It makes it incredibly easy to root for the player, especially given the circumstances surrounding the QB position in Cleveland over the last four years. And from a less fandom POV and more a team side, it would do wonders for the organization if a fifth round pick becomes the starter. Rookie QB contracts are amongst the highest value in the NFL and that’s considering the usually first round payout; fifth rounders are paid SIGNIFICANTLY less than first rounders. It makes whatever move you make with He Who Shall Not Be Moved Off The PUP List much less impactful to the spending bill if you can find surplus value in Sanders or even Gabriel, should they pop.
Slow playing Sanders’ development, giving him bits and pieces to show what he can do rather than dropping the thick playbook on his desk and rushing him to start big time games, is the right move if the front office thinks he’s got the higher ceiling. But Friday thrusts him into the spotlight. Will he step up and show what made most of America think he was a viable option in the first round or will he shrink back and make it clear that he is a true fifth-round talent and should be treated as such, despite the shiny nepo-baby name on the back of the jersey and watch celebrations? Time will tell, and come Saturday morning, we will have our first look of Shedeur in brown and orange.
