CLEVELAND, Ohio — Shedeur Sanders now has four more chances to throw up his wrist and show the Browns they can stop thinking about Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson, Dante Moore and the other top QBs in the NFL draft.
It’s Sanders Time for the rest of the season, with the Browns’ starting quarterback job for 2026 on the line.
On Monday, Kevin Stefanski announced that Sanders, who almost pulled off an upset of the Titans during Sunday’s 31–29 loss with two touchdowns in the final 4:27, will start the final four games of the season. It means he’ll total seven starts by the end, with the final four against the Bears (9-4), Bills (9-4), Steelers (7-6), and Bengals (4-9).
“All along, with our quarterbacks and our young players, you’re always making sure that you’re making the right decisions for our guys,” Stefanski said Monday on a video conference. “And I think he’s constantly and consistently gotten better in each one of these games and how he’s approached his game.
“He’s been working very hard, so I feel good about where his development is heading. He knows there are always going to be plays that he can be better and those types of things, but he’s very intentional about getting better each and every game he’s out there.”
During the Titans game, Sanders outplayed No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward, going 23 of 42 for 364 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception en route to a 97.7 rating. He also rushed for a 7-yard TD, becoming the first Browns quarterback since 1950 to pass for 300 yards and three TDs, and rush for a TD in the same game.
What’s more, he joined Pro Bowler Joe Burrow as the only rookie quarterbacks in the NFL with at least 350 passing yards, three TD passes and one rushing TD in a game.
In addition, since the NFL merger in 1970, only two quarterbacks have thrown for exactly 364 yards in their third career start: Sanders and his mentor Tom Brady. That’s some pretty lofty company for Sandersto keep so early in his career.
“We’ve been around each other now going back to April, so I’ve seen constant improvement in a bunch of areas,” Stefanski said. “But I also saw in that game improvement in some areas that we asked him to improve upon. And I think that’s the fun part of coaching is developing players and giving them the tools to improve in certain areas, if you will. The fun part is when you have players like Shedeur, like our rookies, whomever it may be, that are very intentional about their own development as well.”
Stefanski, who often studies Sanders’ practice tape with him in his office, has been especially impressed with his work ethic and desire to improve. He’s 1-2, but put the Browns in position to win on Sunday, just like he did in his relief appearance against the Ravens when Dillon Gabriel was lost to a concussion. In that game, he dropped the potential gamewinning touchdown pass into Gage Larvadain’s hands in the end zone, and it was knocked out.
“(The work ethic goes) back to since the moment he got here,” Stefanski said. “That’s what we’ve been striving to work with him and with all of our guys. He’s still very early into his career, and he would tell you the same. You want to have constant improvement in everything you’re doing. There are moments in these games that come up that are hard to replicate in practice.
“You can talk through them on tape, you can talk through them in a walk-through, and then you get the rep in a game, and that’s the most valuable learning tool you can have. And I think he’ll only take all of that and use that to his development moving forward.”
Stefanski acknowledged that Sanders has improved considerably in not running out of the back of the pocket and taking big sacks. He was sacked three times on his 42 attempts, but didn’t drift backwards much for huge losses. He did retreat some on his interception, on a second and 20 from his 45, and will learn from it. Seeing Gage Larvadain raise his hand down the deep middle, Sanders heaved the ball and overthrew him. Safety Xavier Woods jumped the route, picked off the ill-advised pass and returned it 35 yards to the Browns’ 38. Two plays later, running back Tony Pollard, who rushed for a shocking 161 yards on the Browns’ No. 10 run defense, bolted in for a 32-yard TD that put Tennessee up 21-17 with 51 seconds left in the third.
But for the most part, Sanders — who absorbed 14 hits from the Titans — has learned to check it down, throw it away, or scramble forward.
“That’s definitely been an area of focus for him that I think he continues to improve,” Stefanski said. “There were multiple plays in that game where there was really good evidence of really good footwork. Footwork that you can coach off. This is what you’re working on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It’s showing up here on Sunday.”
Stefanski noted that the Browns’ 230 receiving yards after the catch against the Titans can be partially attributed to Sanders’ elite accuracy, which is arguably his forte.
“When you put the throw where the receiver or the tight end or the running back doesn’t have to break stride, that allows you to maximize your speed throughout the route and into the play,” Stefanski said. “And then it’s the receivers winning vs. man. I think Jerry’s (Jeudy) route, his big touchdown vs. man, he won and he won with a lot of separation. So I think it all factors into it.”
Browns defensive end Alex Wright, for one, is excited to watch Sanders play out the string.
“He brings an energy of his own,” Wright said on a video conference Monday. “Shedeur has been the same person since he stepped foot in Cleveland. There’s nothing that changes about him. He’s always the happy-go-lucky person that’s in the locker room, always shaking peoples’ hands, making jokes and stuff like that. And then when it’s time to put on the pads and put on the helmet, it’s time to work.”
Wright witnesses the same thing each day in the building that Myles Garrett revealed last month.
“Even when I come into the facility, I see him in the office every day with coach Stefanski just going over film and stuff like that,” Wright said. “It’s noticeable on my part because I’m an observant person. When I come in, I don’t really say much, because I’m not a morning person. So I keep my head down and stuff like that. But I see him in there asking questions and he’s not afraid to ask questions.”
Wright acknowledged that Sanders will have his growing pains like all rookies do, but the fact he brought the Browns back from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit and almost sent the game into overtime showed a lot. Sanders did it with a 66-yard touchdown drive that ended with his 7-yard scramble for a TD, and with a 7-play, 80-yard drive that ended with his perfect 7-yard strike to Harold Fannin Jr. The only that derailed the comeback were the pair of failed two-point attempts, one on a fumbled snap by Sanders, and one on a direct snap to Quinshon Judkins that he botched.
“Just for (Sanders) to be that poised as a rookie that’s not afraid to go out there and throw the football?” Wright said. “It’s the fact that you could go up and do it again the next play. I feel like with Shedeur, we’re just going to take the next steps. We’re going to be behind him and just keep cheering him on, and keep telling him to be who he is. At the end of the day, I’ve got nothing but love for Shedeur. I just want him to succeed just like everybody else on the team.”
Running back Dylan Sampson, who caught 5 of 6 targets from Sanders for 64 yards, including a clutch 31-yarder on the final TD drive, has seen Sanders take more and more command in the huddle over his three starts.
“He talks to me when we get out of the huddle, like ‘go win, go win on this route, I got you,’ stuff like that,’” Sampson said. “So when we’ve got somebody like that, you’ve got to make a play. It’s definitely nice having that, but it’s just due to the work that we put in prior to gameday.”
If he put together four more performances like Sunday’s, he just might be who the Browns are looking for.
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com’s Browns reporters.
