The Cleveland Browns played their first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers, and that game left Kevin Stefanski with an obvious Shedeur Sanders decision. In a 30-10 blowout win, the Browns put a lot of good football on tape.
Despite the team not projected to be any good in the 2025 NFL Season, there were many promising parts of this first preseason game, and the main storyline for the franchise this offseason has obviously been the quarterback room.
Cleveland shocked the NFL world in the 2025 NFL Draft by not only taking Dillon Gabriel in the third round but also double-dipping and taking Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round, and most in the NFL world were flat-out shocked that he fell this far. Well, after an encouraging debut for Sanders in the preseason, head coach Kevin Stefanski is left with a very obvious roster decision.
Shedeur Sanders should be the 'next man up' in the Cleveland Browns QB room
Shedeur Sanders saw most of the snaps for the Cleveland Browns at quarterback in this game, and he went 14/23 for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Simply put, Sanders was efficient and had some very nice throws and even plays with his legs.
At this point, especially with who else the team has in their quarterback room, Sanders has to be looked at as the 'next man up' in the room for the inevitable Joe Flacco benching. Most of us would probably agree that Flacco is in line to start for the Browns in the 2025 NFL Season
However, Flacco starting does not mean he's going to keep the job for a full 17 games. With how shaky the Browns are around Flacco, it may only be a matter of time before the fans and even coaches want to see another quarterback get some action, and that quarterback should be Shedeur Sanders. He's got the highest ceiling of the remaining quarterbacks in their room.
Sanders was seen by some of the most trusted NFL Draft experts as a first-round pick, so I suppose we really should not be all that surprised to see the controversial quarterback get some action in the regular season.