Shedeur Sanders sends Cam Ward a gift by doing something nobody has done since before either rookie was born
Shedeur Sanders did Cam Ward a big favor in Week 12.
In Week 12, the first overall rookie QB lost. And his pre-draft counterpart, who slid into the fifth round and has spent most of his career as a third-stringer, won.
Alright, that’s enough narrative-spinning with QB wins (not a stat). But Shedeur Sanders did, in fact, lead the Browns to a win in his professional debut against the Raiders. That win made franchise history, and it was a real favor for Sanders’ buddy in Tennessee.
Shedeur Sanders’ first career win helps Cam Ward
The name of the game for the Tennessee Titans the rest of this season is showing as much progress as possible while maintaining their position atop the NFL Draft order. Through 12 weeks, it’s been so far, so good on that second part. They’re 1-10 and alone in the driver’s seat for the first overall pick.
As for improvement, well, this week’s loss to the Seahawks was easily the best performance of Ward’s NFL career when considering the degree of difficulty. He put up a better performance against a ferocious Seattle defense than a lot of good QBs have this year, and he did it with a much worse collection of pieces around him than most (all?) of those quarterbacks.
Toeing that line of impressive play while still losing will get tricky down the stretch if they actually trend up as a team. And with a handful of the bottom-feeder competition for draft positioning on their schedule, it’s especially crucial to lose to them. They did so against the 2-9 Raiders in Week 6, and they have the 3-8 Browns and 2-9 Saints left to play.
But it’s thanks to Ward’s friend, Sanders, doing something no Browns QB has done in their debut since the franchise moved back to Cleveland, that his team has three wins.
That’s right, neither Sanders nor Ward was born the last time a Browns QB won their debut. That’s a lot of losses because they’ve gone through a ton of QBs. And with the Raiders already earning a win and the Titans earning a loss in their matchup earlier this year, it’s ideal for Tennessee that the Browns got a third win before these two face off in two weeks.
It might be a stretch to say Sanders was the reason the Browns won. He certainly benefited from playing a downright awful opponent and having a legitimately great defense on his side. He tallied 209 yards on 21 dropbacks, for one touchdown and one interception. That’s a perfectly normal traditional stat line. His advanced stats tell a worse story, however, -0.21 EPA/dropback isn’t great.
It’s his first start, though, and he’s allowed to have room to grow. He made some promising plays, including this one:
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski seemed to walk back his stance on who the Browns starter would be going forward, declining to commit to Sanders or Gabriel after the win.
Last week, before the game, he told reporters that Gabriel would return to the starting lineup when healthy. Perhaps we’ll see Sanders vs. Ward in Week 14 yet.
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