Friday night in Carolina was not your ordinary preseason game, as all eyes were on the Browns with Shedeur Sanders making the start in Cleveland's first game action of the year. While Sanders' start largely became of injuries and not because he's winning the quarterback competition, opportunity came knocking early for the former Colorado star.
Although Sanders isn't likely to win the starting job outright for Week 1 (no fifth-round quarterback has started Week 1 since the 70s), he aims to show enough to be considered for the next option after the Browns move off likely starter Joe Flacco. His first chance to show his abilities in a large capacity came on Friday night, as he finished with 47 total snaps and played into the third quarter before Tyler Huntley finished the night out.
Shedeur Sanders goes for two touchdowns in impressive preseason debut
The rookie made the most of his first chance, but it got off to an understandably slow start. The muffed punt recovered on special teams gave him and the offense the jolt they needed, as Sanders found Kaden Davis for his first NFL touchdown pass on second down from the seven. He led another touchdown drive later in the half, where he completed a 30-yard pass to undrafted standout Luke Floriea and finished the drive with another touchdown to Davis from 12 yards out.
downfield dart 🎯#CLEvsCAR on NFLN, @WEWS & NFL+ pic.twitter.com/IEHtRfilip
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 9, 2025
For the day, Sanders completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns to go with 19 rushing yards on four attempts and a passer rating of 106.8. One of Sanders' biggest critiques coming out of college was how often he took sacks, but he was only sacked twice despite playing behind an entirely backup offensive line.
This is undoubtedly a strong start for Sanders' career, even thought it probably doesn't mean he's taken a step ahead of the rest of the quarterback competition. Nonetheless, his ability to protect the football and lead the offense down the field in Kevin Stefanski's offense was a great sight to see in his debut.