There was only one sensible move to be made after rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ performance Dec. 7 against the Tennessee Titans. That was the move Browns coach Kevin Stefanski made the next day.
Stefanski named Sanders the Browns’ starting quarterback for the remainder of the season. Barring anything derailing that plan, that would give the fifth-round pick out of the University of Colorado seven total starts this season to develop on the field.
Just as important, it will give the Browns seven full games to watch how Sanders develops. That development will be critical to the plans they have for the offseason, specifically in what they do at the quarterback position.
A strong finish by Sanders could mean the Browns can focus their attention, and valuable draft capital, on other major areas of need. Wide receiver and offensive line leap to the front of the line in terms of where it’s spent.
So what are the three biggest questions Sanders has to answer not just in his next start at the Chicago Bears, but the final four starts overall? Here they are.
Can Shedeur Sanders continue the strides he’s made in his footwork, especially in the pocket?
The biggest criticism of Sanders was his desire to drift around in the pocket, if not even beyond. The pressure would collapse the pocket and, instead of stepping up in the pocket, he would corkscrew his way deeper, leading to massive losses. The last couple of weeks, that has started to consistently change. Sanders has been more decisive, whether it’s to just move around in the pocket to extend the play a bit or to throw it away to live to play another down. It bit him on the one interception he threw in the Tennessee game when he lingered way too long in the pocket before he found pressure on him and just heaved one up. That play, though, was an outlier to most of his performance since he made his second-half debut in Week 11.
Can Shedeur Sanders lift his accuracy a little bit, if it’s even in his control?
In his three starts, Sanders has completed 55%, 64% and 54.8% of his passes. The absolute elite trait he brought out of college to the pros was his accuracy. His 71.8 completion percentage in his two seasons at Colorado was the highest for any NCAA FBS Division I quarterback since 1956 with a minimum of 875 pass attempts. The bigger question, though, is if it’s really a Sanders problem at all. The Browns wide receiving corps has been, since the start of the season, a major liability for the offense regardless of who the quarterback was at the time. Granted, it’s a much smaller sample size than either Joe Flacco or Dillon Gabriel, but the three drops Sanders has dealt with are also the lowest of the three quarterbacks. Whether it’s Sanders or the players he’s throwing to, the reality is the same — that it can’t be around a 50-50 proposition if a pass is going to be completed. The time on task, as Sanders likes to talk about, will no doubt help over these final four games. How much so? That’s a question they’re going to have to answer.
Can Shedeur Sanders avoid the ‘one bad quarter’?
The last couple of starts against the 49ers and Titans have been, for 75% of each game, solid. Sanders has taken what the game plan and the defense have given him and turned it into something. The bad quarter against the Titans was a third quarter, when he was 3-of-10 passing for 47 yards while Tennessee turned the game from a three-point deficit to a four-point lead. Part of being the answer at the position is a certain consistency. It’s not that gamble aren’t welcomed, even required. It’s just like being at the craps table — you can’t throw good money after bad. A gamble or two are fine, but just don’t let it drag the offense into a dip that turns into a game-altering valley.
