Shedeur Sanders Expresses His Excitement for 2026 Season Despite Rough Year for Browns

Sanders’s role for the 2026 season is still unknown, but he’s hoping to use these next few games as a starter to help him improve.

Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders is ready to learn and grow from his opportunity to remain the team’s starter. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Shedeur Sanders has a tough few weeks ahead of him as he’s slated to start the remaining three games for the Browns to finish out his rookie season.

Cleveland will face the Bills this weekend, followed by the Steelers and the Bengals. The 3–11 Browns have no dog in the fight, so it gives Sanders a great opportunity to show off his talents and compete against some of the top players in the league, especially since it’s still unknown what next season brings for Sanders.

The quarterback was all smiles while speaking to the media on Wednesday as he expressed his excitement for his future in Cleveland. He’s taking this opportunity of remaining as the starter to learn and grow from it for next season.

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“This year right here, it’s the worst it’s going to be,” Sanders said. “This is the foundation, this is where I’m building from. This is where I’m understanding different things. This is where everything’s translating for me. I’m excited about it. I’m extremely excited about it because I know we’re going to get ‘em eventually.”

"This year right here, this is the worst it's going to be... this is the foundation, this is where I'm building from."

Shedeur is excited about the future of this Browns team 👏

(via @Browns) pic.twitter.com/0Tn5iOg9XT

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 17, 2025

Hopefully Sanders can compete better than he did in Week 15 vs. the Bears. He completed 18-of-35 passes for 177 yards, with no touchdowns and three interceptions, and was sacked five times while playing against Chicago. This performance put his status as QB1 in question, but Kevin Stefanski isn’t wavering from starting Sanders.

It’s not like the Browns really have any other choice at this point, though. They started the season with Joe Flacco as QB1, but he was later benched and then traded to the Bengals. Then, fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel started six games, but has been out since suffering a concussion last month. Sanders and Gabriel are the only two quarterbacks listed on the depth chart, even though there was a possibility of Deshaun Watson being activated before the season was over, but it sounds like that will wait until next season.

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