Shedeur Sanders Shines in NFL Debut

The Cleveland Browns played their first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers this past Friday, and to say the least, the world was watching. Earlier in the week, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced that fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders would be the starter in the team’s first preseason game. Shedeur Sanders, for anyone who’s been living under a rock, is the son of Hall of Famer and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders. A standout at Colorado under his father’s guidance, Shedeur entered the NFL Draft with plenty of hype; some even had him mocked to the Browns with their second overall pick. Instead, he slid to the fifth round, where Cleveland scooped him up. Shedeur has hall-of-fame levels of fame due to his dad, and because of this, Browns and NFL fans alike were ready to see if he could deliver, and boy, did he deliver.

Shedeur Sanders played in the preseason game against the Carolina Panthers until roughly three minutes were left in the third quarter. During that time, Sanders went 14/23 for 138 yards and two touchdowns, those touchdowns being tight-window throws in the red zone. Speaking of the red zone, while Sanders did not throw a touchdown on his final trip to the red zone, the team still scored on an end-around, making Sanders a perfect three for three every time he was in the red zone. Sanders impressed, to say the absolute least, especially considering a portion of his reps were against the Carolina first team defense, while he was surrounded by a majority of the Browns’ second team offense. Cleveland Browns fans are excited and rightfully so, but Shedeur said it himself, he did not fully seize the opportunity.

Sanders was great, I am not going to deny that, but there are still things he needs to work on.]Sanders was known for having issues drifting too far from the pocket when pressure came his way. This happened twice during the Carolina game, where Sanders could have taken unnecessary sacks for a loss of major yards. While this is concerning, there were multiple examples of Shedeur working on this during the game. Sanders had multiple plays where pressure from Carolina’s defensive line was in his face, and instead of running away from it, he set his feet and threw the ball. If Sanders can continue to fix this, oh boy.

While Sanders was the highlight and will be especially in the national media until the next preseason game, the Browns’ defense also impressed. Rookie defensive tackle Mason Graham and rookie linebacker Carson Schwesinger both played in the beginning of the preseason game against the Panthers and impressed, disrupting the offensive line and run game. Not only did the rookies impress, but so did fourth-year defensive end Alex Wright, who was consistently in the backfield disrupting plays during his time checked into the game, seemingly picking up where he left off before tearing his tricep in week four of the 2024 season.

Many talking heads are going to point out that this was just a preseason game, and while it was a preseason game, it was much. much more than that. For the first time in what feels like a long time, Browns fans are excited, and that is because they got to see, not be told, promising output on the field early into the preseason. With a rookie quarterback performing like Sanders is this early into his NFL career, and a defense looking like it is even without Myles Garret, oh boy. All I can say is buckle up, Browns fans, this is going to be fun.