The Cleveland Browns have been the perennial laughing stock of the National Football League for quite some time now. And if it weren’t for the New York Jets, they would be unchallenged for the title of the worst franchise of the modern era. Nevertheless, their fans continue to show up year after year.
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Kevin Stefanski has done his best to navigate things, and even after he found himself with four different quarterbacks on his roster, he remained committed to choosing the one who he believed would give them the best chance at winning. The only problem, however, is that they keep losing.
Now, here we are in Week 7 of the regular season. Joe Flacco is gone, Kenny Pickett is gone, Dillon Gabriel seems to be anything but inspiring, and Shedeur Sanders is still on the bench.
Everyone is frustrated, but according to the hosts of the Cleveland-based 92.3 The Fan sports radio show, there may be a solution just yet.
“Kevin [Stefanski] likes Dillon more, give him eight games and that will still leave, as long as Dillon’s healthy enough to play eight games, that’ll still give Shedeur five games. It’s not what maybe what Shedeur fans want. It’s probably not as fair of a shake as it should be, but five games is still enough to prove yourself. But after last week, I would say, 7 games for Dillon Gabriel and 6 for Shedeur Sanders.”
Unfortunately, Gabriel’s first two starts have been anything but stellar. The Oregon product has completed just 56% of his passes, and while he has yet to turn the ball over, a consistent string of poor decisions has resulted in him averaging a little more than 205 passing yards per game.
Of course, he’ll still get the starting nod in Week 7, where Cleveland will take on the sinking ship that is the Miami Dolphins. Seeing as Miami is currently allowing the fourth most points and the 12th most yards of any team in the league, this may be Gabriel’s best chance at convincing the masses that he is, in fact, worthy of being a QB1.
However, should he begin to falter once again, then the cries for Sanders will only get louder. For one reason or another, both the coaching staff and the ownership in Cleveland seem to have zero interest in granting Sanders those reps.
But then again, we have to ask ourselves, what else do they have to lose? The Browns can’t afford to play things conservatively forever.
At some point or another, they are going to have to take a chance. Otherwise, they’ll risk sinking even further into that sea of mediocrity.
Sanders may not prove to be the answer to their problems, but he can at least bring something that his franchise hasn’t seen in quite some time, and that’s both viewers and excitement.