NFL fans often joke that the league is scripted, and with how the Week 9 matchup between the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints is shaping up, fans are once again joking that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s pen is unmatched.
The reason why script jokes are flying this week is that Browns starting quarterback Deshaun Watson was placed in concussion protocol, setting up Shedeur Sanders to make his first start of the 2026 season against New Orleans.
Considering Sanders’ connection to the Saints, fans are already thinking about the various storylines that will be highlighted when the second-year quarterback takes the field on Sunday.
Shedeur Sanders will be forever linked to the Saints ahead of first game vs. New Orleans
During the 2025 NFL Draft, where Sanders’ slide from a projected first-round pick to an actual fifth-round pick became a story that transcended sports, things reached a tipping point in the second round. When the Saints were on the clock with the 40th overall pick, Sanders’ phone, that he got specifically for NFL front office members to call him, rang.
The call, which was captured on video from both sides, ended up being Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich’s son and his friends impersonating Saints general manager Mickey Loomis. They pranked Sanders by leading him to believe he was about to be drafted by New Orleans.
The footage of the prank call made waves and resulted in consequences for Ulbrich. The Saints ultimately selected quarterback Tyler Shough in that spot. While the prank call itself generated a ton of outrage, so did the selection of Shough over Sanders.
Many fans and media members who believed that Sanders was a better prospect than Shough viewed that moment as the official sign that something was up, and that’s when the conspiracy theories started. Even Saints fans, who really wanted Sanders, were frustrated with the Shough selection.
Of course, that has resulted in constant comparisons between Sanders and Shough during their young careers, and everyone loves when compared athletes get to face off against one other.
So with this matchup between the two second-year quarterbacks, the prank call saga, and the fact that Sanders’ father, Deion Sanders, admitted that he felt New Orleans would’ve been a great destination for his son, Sanders’ first start of his second season coming against the Saints sets up for some fun storylines.
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