Shedeur Sanders is in as the Cleveland Browns’ QB1. It only took 12 weeks, but he has been announced as the official starter and will be getting all the first-team reps he needs to prepare.
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His first NFL start comes against a sorry Las Vegas Raiders team that many thought would select Sanders. So that—plus his ugly second-half debut against the Ravens last week—will likely mean Sanders has extra incentive to show everyone what he can do on Sunday.
With Sanders set to start, the negative narratives surrounding him have returned. But so have the pro-Sanders conspiracy theories. FS1 pundit Colin Cowherd is sick of the latter, so he decided to dissect those theories and shut them down prior to this weekend’s action.
“The funny thing about this conspiracy theory, it’s got four stages. The first one was, he dropped to the fifth round; the league is against him. Yeah, I’m not gonna bite into that one. The second one was, he’s on the scout team? He’s behind Dillon Gabriel? Okay.”
Cowherd continued onto the back half of the Shedeur Sanders conspiracy train. Apparently, some believe that even the Cleveland police force was in on the anti-Sanders agenda.
“The third one was, oh, so now the Cleveland cops are in on it. They gave him two speeding tickets. So now you have the NFL, Kevin Stefanski, and law enforcement are all in on it. And the fourth one was, how could you play him, he didn’t get any reps with the first team.”
Cowherd referenced how career backup Josh Dobbs came into a game for the Vikings last year without having even practiced with the team and still got them a win. No first-team reps needed. Another similar story was Baker Mayfield’s wild ride with the L.A. Rams. He started and led a game-winning drive just two days after signing with the team.
Cowherd says all of those theories are just what they are: theories. The reality is that Sanders is just a young man trying to figure out the ins and outs of not only playing QB in the NFL, but also how to deal with the level of fame he’s attained already.
“The truth is he’s immature, that’s indisputable, and he’s not that good. I’m rooting for him because I don’t root against young people. Even Baker Mayfield, when I used to whack him, or Johnny Manziel. I always wanted them to win. I wanted them to be good.”
Sanders spoke about his first opportunity to start an NFL game and expressed his excitement, but also his acknowledgement of the pressure and expectations attached to him for this clash. Thankfully, he welcomes the pressure.
“I know our fans have a lot of expectations and hope. And I would be doing a disservice to myself and disservice to the organization if I didn’t feel like I am the guy. With the circumstances, everything gotta be sped up. And that’s great. I like pressure in life. I’m just excited for everything.”
Most of the Cleveland offensive unit should be ready to go to support Sanders in this endeavour. However, he is likely to be without one of his most important targets in tight end David Njoku, who has yet to practice this week. Missing Njoku would rob Sanders of a reliable security blanket, though rookie TE Harold Fannin Jr. should be able to pick up some of that slack.
