Why Shedeur Sanders deserves to be Browns starting QB moving forward

Kevin Stefanski was not willing to commit to Shedeur Sanders after the game, but he should be ready to make that long-awaited announcement very soon.

Because Sanders did enough in his first career start to remain the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns moving forward.

It wasn’t perfect. Sanders was 11-of-20 for 209 yards. He threw one touchdown and one interception in Cleveland’s 24-10 victory against the Las Vegas Raiders.

But a 52-yard bomb to Isaiah Bond and a 66-yard screen pass to Dylan Sampson should be enough for Sanders to supplant fellow rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel on Cleveland’s depth chart.

After Sanders uncorked the longest pass from a Browns quarterback all season in the first quarter, the CBS broadcast caught Myles Garrett smiling on the sideline.

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"There's not many guys in the league that can make that throw,” Garrett said after the game. “That was a hell of a throw. I hope he can continue to grow and develop from making plays like that and take it from there."

Garrett’s praise is the highest endorsement that Sanders could receive right now. The ninth-year pass rusher is five sacks away from setting the NFL’s single-season record. But last offseason, Garrett broadcasted how he actually felt about the current state of the Browns during his public trade request.

"Any team that's going to go far needs a quarterback and one that's young, can learn and is willing to be patient with the process," Garrett told Browns Radio Network in March. "There's going to be some bumps in the road. It's going to be some learning pains. But us as a team has to be able to be a landing pad for him to fall back on, and know being on the defensive side, to help him out whenever things go wrong."

At this point, there’s no sense in putting Gabriel back on the field. To Garrett’s point, Cleveland’s defense had to pick him up too frequently during his first six starts in the NFL. Meanwhile, with only three practices with the starting offense, Sanders outperformed expectations.

“Imagine what a full offseason looks like,” Sanders told the CBS broadcast after the win. “It gets dangerous.”

With six regular season games remaining, the Browns need to see if Sanders can continue to look the part. The 2026 NFL Draft quarterback class is not shaping up to be very talented and the Browns have two first-round picks.

If Sanders could find a way to play winning football over the next six weeks, he could get his wish of an entire offseason with the Browns, who could use their draft capital to address holes at receiver and offensive line.

Not to mention, Gabriel is not a threat to do anything with his arm. Sanders is. The proof is in the results.

In the second half in New York, Gabriel’s wild inaccuracy missed Malachi Corley on a screen pass that would’ve broken for a touchdown as Wyatt Teller had a Jets defender pancaked. Corley was incensed that the third-round quarterback couldn’t even complete a simple checkdown.

The Browns would end up losing to the Jets after that missed opportunity.

In the second half of Cleveland’s win against the Raiders, Sanders completed a screen pass to Sampson that resulted in a touchdown and padded a victory for the Browns.

When the Browns decided to not trade Garrett this offseason, they signaled to the entire world that they were not tanking or rebuilding. They wanted to win football games.

So they should listen to their generational pass rusher and give the most promising passer on the roster an honest audition over these next six games.