Sanders threw for 364 yards, three touchdowns and rushed for another score in the Browns’ loss to the Titans. Nick Cammett / Getty Images
Shedeur Sanders’ extended audition with the Cleveland Browns will continue for the season’s remaining four games.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski announced Monday that Sanders will be the team’s starter for the rest of the season. Though Sanders has started three games and threw for 364 yards and three touchdowns in Sunday’s 31-29 loss to the Titans, Stefanski previously hadn’t committed to Sanders past the Tennessee game.
“Shedeur has constantly and consistently gotten better,” Stefanski said. “I feel good about where his development is heading.”
Sanders is the Browns’ third starting quarterback of the season. He started the offseason fourth in line and was the second of two quarterbacks drafted by Cleveland in April. Sanders, a fifth-round pick, took over after third-round rookie Dillon Gabriel suffered a concussion during a Week 11 loss to Baltimore.
The Browns are 1-2 in Sanders’ starts, but his most recent game was clearly his best.
Sanders became the first Browns player to throw for at least 300 yards and have at least three touchdown passes and one rushing score in the same game. It was the Browns’ first 300-plus-yard passing game of the season.
Though Sanders’ late third-quarter interception set up the Titans’ go-ahead score, Sanders rallied the Browns to two touchdowns in the final five minutes. Both two-point conversion attempts failed, and Cleveland slipped to 3-10.
With little certainty going forward in the quarterback room or across the defensive depth chart, the Browns keeping Sanders as their starter makes sense from an evaluation and development standpoint. They have two first-round picks in the 2026 draft: their own, which currently stands in the top five of the projected draft order, and Jacksonville’s from a trade made on the night of the first round of this year’s draft.
Sanders will have a new starting center on Sunday when the Browns play the Bears in Chicago. Stefanski confirmed that veteran center Ethan Pocic will miss the rest of the season after he suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon during the second half of the loss to Tennessee.
Luke Wypler will take over as the starter. Pocic is one of six Browns offensive linemen eligible for free agency in March, and Pocic’s absence means the Browns will have their ninth different starting offensive line combination of the season when they face the Bears.
