What Shedeur Sanders’ first regular season snaps tell us about his future with the Cleveland Browns

In a week of game planning that wasn’t designed for him, in a season where he didn’t take practice reps with the first-team offense, and for a head coach who would still have him as his No. 3 quarterback if Joe Flacco hadn’t been traded, Shedeur Sanders finally got some regular season snaps on Sunday for the Cleveland Browns.

As expected, he looked like a fifth-round rookie quarterback who was eager for an opportunity rather than prepared. Next week might be different. The Browns now must find the difficult balance between making Sanders the potential Week 12 starter while monitoring the health of Dillon Gabriel in the concussion protocol. And how next week plays out could tell us what the rest of the season will look like for Sanders.

One way or another, it has to improve from 23-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. It’s a play that will be cited by Sanders’ critics as proof positive that some of his more difficult traits — taking sacks, running back to escape pockets, mechanically slacking off on throws, holding the ball too long — are still at the forefront. In two shifts, Sanders was 4 of 16 for 47 passing yards with one interception and no offensive points. The result was that the Browns squandered a 16-10 halftime lead and fell to 2-8.

In some ways, Sanders’ numbers could have been worse, with Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton dropping an interception that was thrown to his chest, and the Browns recovering a lost fumble by Sanders. In other ways, it could have been better, too, with a 30-yard touchdown pass to wideout Gage Larvadain being broken up at the last moment in the end zone. That throw, along with tight end Harold Fannin Jr.’s 25-yard completion, were two bright spots in an otherwise gloomy half of football.

So what does half the football mean when Sanders was not the quarterback prepared for this opportunity? Well, at least two things.

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First, it gives you some insight into why the original plan for the regular season was to have Flacco on the roster and back up Gabriel once he moved into the starting job. The staff didn’t want Sanders to be pushed into action like he was against the Ravens, in large part because that was going to look like what it ultimately would look like: a rookie who has a long way to go in his development and a coaching staff that’s already giving Gabriel every opportunity. It’s hard enough trying to perfect a rookie quarterback just starting out, a quarterback who needs all the practice reps and live-action snaps he can get. But now you put a second recruit behind him and there’s virtually no way to operate without starving one or both of them.

This is part of the misconception that Sanders should have taken snaps with the first-team offense all along. This is not how you develop a starting quarterback into a starter. You don’t split those reps between two rookies because that doesn’t get them what they fully need at the position either. Again, this is why the original plan was to have Flacco as Gabriel’s replacement. Because he doesn’t need representatives. Gabriel could eat up all the practice reps and if he was injured in a match, Flacco could step in with a wealth of experience that made him immediately ready for the moment.

But when Flacco walked out the door and Sanders was promoted to the second spot, it created a problem. Now you had Gabriel, who needs time with the first-team offense to develop as a starter…and you also had Sanders, who needs time with the first-team offense to develop as a starter. player. Trying to balance training reps between the two would be a disservice to both.

The Browns opted to stick to their plan at the start of the season and develop a rookie. And when Gabriel fell, it presented a difficult opportunity for Sanders. Whether it was Week 11, Week 13, or Week 18, he was going to play his first NFL snaps at a disadvantage because he was always going to be a very distant second priority for the team. No amount of anger from the media, sports radio or fans was going to change that. And the result is what we saw in Sanders on Sunday: a player who wasn’t ready for the moment because he wasn’t prepared for the moment. The mystery of what that would look like when the time comes is now solved. We know it.

The second thing Sunday brings is an answer to what this changes for Browns and Sanders. In a word: nothing.

Gabriel suffered a concussion, but that didn’t knock him out of his starting job. Head coach Kevin Stefanski made it clear after the loss. When Gabriel completes the concussion protocol, he will once again be the starting quarterback. If he fails to meet protocols before the Week 12 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, then it will be Sanders who takes the job – temporarily.

This statement should wake up some people who are still frustratingly hoping (dreaming?) that the Browns are willing to groom Sanders to be the starting quarterback. This is not the case. They haven’t been since the start of the season. And actually, they were never in that mindset from the start of training camp.

Sanders was getting a crash course in the second half against the Ravens, hadn’t the Browns suddenly changed their tune. It was the coaching staff who had no other option on the table. And nothing in Sanders’ performance will suddenly make Stefanski think he’s doing it wrong. On the contrary, it is the opposite. Now the coaching staff can point to tape and rightly say, “He’s not ready.”

Can this change? It’s the same response that has resonated since Sanders got snaps in exhibition games: If he absolutely lights it up, it won’t be ignored. Let’s project this over the next week. If Gabriel stays in the concussion protocol and Sanders gets a full week of practice as the No. 1 QB… then he takes that week of practice and translates it into a stunning performance against the Raiders… then he has a tangible argument. Then he can say “here are the results when you dedicate 100% of these practice opportunities to me.”

Right now, his supporters’ main argument is just a theory: Sanders is struggling to develop because he isn’t getting reps with the first-team offense and isn’t getting the attention he needs from the coaching staff. Maybe that’s true. Or maybe his college skills — being hyper-precise and ready to deal with pressure — were born from an offensive system that will never translate to the NFL level. Maybe the speed of the game at this level is too much for him. A vast ocean of wildly successful college quarterbacks never made it in this league simply because the professional game never slowed down for them.

Maybe it’s Sanders. Besides, it could also be Gabriel. There are seven other departures left to discover.

Next week suddenly looks very important. Either in Week 1 when Sanders was treated like he could be the future of the Browns quarterback position or when he was once again pushed back into the backup role for now and maybe forever.