Shedeur Sanders Accomplishes Rookie Feat Not Seen Since Joe Burrow in Third NFL Start

The Browns lost, but, in some ways, Sanders won.
Sanders threw for 364 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception during Sunday's loss vs. the Titans.
Sanders threw for 364 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception during Sunday's loss vs. the Titans. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
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Although the Browns lost to the Titans in Week 14, and although he threw a tough interception during the game, rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders had himself a strong performance in his third career start on Sunday afternoon, when he passed for 364 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for another score.

Although that is an obviously impressive stat line on its face, it becomes even more admirable when you consider that only one other rookie quarterback has ever notched a similar single-game haul: according to NFL senior researcher Dante Koplowitz-Fleming, Sanders and Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow are the only rookie signal-callers in the Super Bowl era to record 350+ passing yards, one rushing touchdown and three passing touchdowns in one game.

Interestingly enough, Burrow's big moment arrived during a game vs. the Browns, when he threw for 406 yards—plus the three touchdowns and the one rushing score—back in 2020. The Bengals lost that game, 37–34.

Sanders's big outing also made him the first Browns QB with a 300+ passing yard/three passing touchdown/one rushing touchdown game since 1950.

What a day for the fifth-round pick.


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Brigid Kennedy
BRIGID KENNEDY

Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing managment (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.