It was just slightly more than a week ago that Shedeur Sanders managed to break through and find the first standout game of his career. So even though the Cleveland Browns would ultimately lose to the Tennessee Titans, the rookie from Colorado was still able to produce three passing touchdowns and 364 yards in the process, giving everyone a sense of hope ahead of their Week 15 matchup against the Chicago Bears.
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Unfortunately, all of that momentum came to a halt. Instead of three touchdowns, Sanders threw for three interceptions while being shutout of the end zone in a 31-3 loss. A dropped touchdown grab from Jerry Jeudy, issues with Sanders’ play calling sleeve, as well as questionable play calling in general from the coaching staff, all make up the highlights of the Browns’ latest outing.
Whatever momentum that Sanders had built from the week prior was seemingly wiped out by the time the clock hit zero, and according to Asante Samuel, it’s hard not to think that some of those aforementioned characters are actively trying to “sabotage” Sanders.
“His second interception of the game, he tried to complete it to ya boy, Jerry Jeudy,” Samuel noted. “That just didn’t make any sense.” Two weeks prior, Jeudy was visibly upset by Sanders’ rate of play and was seen yelling at the rookie and gesturing towards him on the sidelines during the contest.
Last week, during the Browns’ narrow loss to the Titans, their head coach, Kevin Stefanski, made the call to take Sanders off of the field for a game-deciding two-point conversion. Having called all of this out throughout the past few weeks, Samuel now seems to be befuddled by the situation.
“Between Jerry Jeudy and Kevin Stefanski, I don’t know who is trying to sabotage Shedeur Sanders on the football field… Tell me why is it that crazy things only happen to Shedeur Sanders? Not when Dillon Gabriel is in the game or anything like that.”
The Browns’ coaching staff also reportedly made some mid-game changes to Sanders’ play-calling sheet. Per the official broadcast itself, the sheet was removed from his sleeve and some “tweaks” were made. It’s speculated that this could have been the cause for some of the confusion that the offense experienced early on.
“You mean to tell me it’s possible that plays on Shedeur’s wristband wasn’t matching the calls from the offensive coordinator? …This is by far the first time I’ve heard of something like this on the NFL level,” Samuel exclaimed.
Of course, his accusations of outright sabotage will likely never be acknowledged, but the former New England Patriot line of questioning does help to affirm the notion that, just when you think you’ve seen it all and it can’t get any worse, the Cleveland Browns will always find a completely new way to mess things up.
