Shedeur Sanders didn’t mince words after Browns’ risky 4th-down decision

Say what you will about Shedeur Sanders’ first five games as QB1 of the Cleveland Browns, but the fifth-round rookie has been refreshingly authentic both on and off the field.

No one really knew what to expect when Sanders began doing regular sessions with the media this year, but he’s passed those first tests with flying colors. If anything, he might be too honest at the podium, as he’s already called a Browns reporter “rude” for a question on head coach Kevin Stefanski earlier in the season, and he was at it again following Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

To set the stage, the Browns were very much in a game that absolutely no one gave them a chance to win against Josh Allen and company. With 7:05 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Browns had the ball trailing by a field goal on their home field.

But that drive started with a negative play on first down, followed by a 1-yard completion to wide receiver Jerry Jeudy. Sanders was able to find Cedric Tillman over the middle on third-and-long, but Tillman was tackled two yards shy of the first down marker, at the Cleveland 44. 

With 5:08 remaining, Stefanski decided to leave his offense on the field and put the ball in his young QBs hands. But Sanders was flushed from the pocket by Buffalo edge Gregory Rousseau and wound up getting dropped for a 13-yard loss and turnover on downs. 

When asked post-game about Stefanki’s decision to go for it on the wrong side of the 50 yard line, Sanders did not hold back with yet another brutally honest response.

Shedeur Sanders pushes back at the podium after tough question about his head coach

When asked about the team’s decision to stay aggressive and go for it on fourth-and-2, Sanders decided to use his platform to deliver a message to the Browns beat.

“I know you can’t be asking me that question man. C’mon, man. … Like, if we want to change the narrative, change the franchise… we’ve gotta speak life. Those kinds of things separate us. Like a lot of the players get these types of questions, and we wanna be working with y’all, and we wanna be proactive. But when questions are asked to us players and it’s like, you’re pinning stuff against each other, it’s like, ‘C’mon now.’ It’s like a thing in the locker room. ‘We’re not going to be able to talk to ‘em for real. We’re not going to be able to give them what they need.’ Because that separates the team. That don’t help anything, in any situation, no matter how you answer it.”

First of all, how can you not appreciate Sanders’ candor? Just before his presser, Myles Garrett was asked a question he didn’t like, and he chose to respond with: “Next question.” That’s not Sanders. He’ll give short answers at times, but nine times out of 10, he tells it like it is.

What Cleveland’s young quarterback still needs to learn? Less is more at the podium, in almost every situation.

It’s not the reporter’s job to bring the team together. Team leaders should expect to be asked about the major pressure points of each game, and it’s on the players to handle their business accordingly; as Garrett showed mere minutes before Sanders hit the podium, there are countless ways to answer a question without actually saying anything.

This wasn’t the first time Sanders has reacted like this to a reporter’s question, and this is obviously his unique way of backing his head coach. But no starting quarterback in the NFL spends much energy on the media’s line of questioning, and that’s something Shedeur still needs to learn.