The Browns gave Shedeur Sanders his first NFL start on Sunday against the Ravens, and while he didn’t look good, neither did Dillon Gabriel when he was playing. With the Browns sitting at one of the worst records in the league, and so much confusion with the team, do the Browns know if they have a guy?
Shedeur Sanders
We don’t have a large sample size with Sanders, and realistically it’ll be until the end of the season before we can make an accurate guess on how successful he is going to be. Against the Ravens he was very poor, throwing an interception within just four passes. Some of the problems however were not totally his fault, as our offensive line was unable to give him even the slightest protection during multiple passes. Since we have only seen a very small size of play, along with suboptimal playing conditions, it’s clear Sanders needs to get more snaps before we can even consider making an opinion. We saw some bad plays from him against the Ravens, but some of it wasn’t his fault. Until he plays more snaps in as many situations as possible, we won’t be able to properly figure out if he is the future or not.
Dillon Gabriel
We have seen much more of Dillon compared to Sanders, and the vetting period is mostly finished. Assuming he was not injured this game against the Ravens, it is more than likely he would have played the rest of the game. His performance was once again lackluster, and there was no promise there was going to be many more games with him starting. In the six games he has started in, he has thrown for 918 yards and six touchdowns, with two interceptions. Both game in the Patriots game, one of his better and yet worse performances. While he hasn’t played any sort amazing football, there are some flashes that show he is alright. Some of the blame must fall on the team, whether that is play calling, the poor offensive line, or a defense which hasn’t lived up to the elite level they were at in the beginning of the season. In Dillon’s first game against the Vikings, the defense lost the game, so that L was not his fault. His play hasn’t been good, but so many other problems have compounded onto his bad play.
Future Selections
If neither of the quarterbacks work out this year, it’ll be back to the draft board for someone now. Sadly, the QBs in recent years have looked poor, though some of them have broken out and played much better than many were expecting. However others have fallen flat, as some expected, and these next few years are nothing new. Many of the quarterbacks are iffy picks, with many teams unsure if they are even worth it. Instead the lack of QBs has been balanced out by the immense increase of talented offensive linemen, wide receivers, and defensive players. The future may be built in these next few years off talent pickup, selecting the best players possible and then finding a quarterback later. The 49ers are the golden child of this style, building an amazing team that can make it deep into the playoff simply by starting someone average. For a team like the Browns with past failures at QB, this style of team building may be the best choice. Especially with how talented this and future drafts are, this may be even easier than it was for the 49ers.
What do they Do?
For now, the Browns remain in a strange limbo with QB. Good enough teams to warrant taking the risk, but bad enough teams to never be able to see the true potential of the QB drafted. For now, we’ll have to see how Sanders performs in the next seven games, and until then it’ll be impossible for anyone to make an accurate projection on the team’s future for the quarterback position, and just the team in general.
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