The Cleveland Browns are starting rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the team’s first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers, despite listing him as fourth on the team’s first unofficial depth chart.
However, many fans think that Cleveland is throwing Sanders into the fire so that he’ll fail. One prominent media personality is tired of the increasingly prevalent narrative that’s currently circulating through the Browns’ fan base.
“Will everybody stop with the Shedeur Sanders is being set up to fail narrative,” ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky said, according to Awful Announcing. “Who do you want to start the game? It’s preseason Week 1. First option, Joe Flacco. He’s played for like 20 years, he’s not going to start preseason Week 1.
“The next two options would be a Kenny Pickett or a Dillon Gabriel. Both are dealing with hamstring injuries, neither has practiced a ton recently. If they’ve done anything I believe it’s been 7-on-7. Who do you want to start the game? The next two options are Shedeur and Snoop Huntley. Shedeur has been there. Snoop Huntley just got there.”
“So while Shedeur may not have had reps with the ones, what else do you want them to do in Cleveland? It’s an opportunity for him, it may not be the ideal opportunity, very rarely is it for a fifth round pick,” he added. “But it’s an oportunity for him to go out there and do in a game what many have reported he’s done in practice. Stop with the set up to fail narrative.”
Fans reacted to Orlovsky’s takes on social media.
“Suprising coming from him? He defends every quarterback no? Isn’t he Carson Wentz biggest supporter?” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“I kind of agree. Let the kid show if he can play or not before trying to write your favored outcome,” someone else added.
“Shedeur won’t take a regular season snap in his career and if he does it’s because he’s in the only organization in the NFL that would be that stupid to let him,” another fan wrote.
It’ll be interesting to see how Sanders does in his opportunity against the Panthers.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.