Inside The Star
Psst, hey you, yeah, I’m talking to you. Did you hear that the second coming of Tom Brady has arrived in the NFL and his name is Shedeur Sanders, in case you didn’t know that already.
Sanders finally made his NFL debut last week against the Ravens when the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, got knocked out with a concussion.
Sanders went 4-for-16 for 47 yards and a touchdown in a 23-16 loss in that game.
But his fanbase — let’s go ahead and call them the “Shedeur Simps”, shall we? – were licking their chops on Sunday. Sanders would be making his first NFL start.
He would show the world how wrong everyone was on draft day when he plummeted from a potential Top 5 pick to being a fifth round selection.
Sanders rolled out on Sunday with this stat line: 11-for-20 for 209 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and was sacked once.
Bigger news was, the Browns won the game 24-10. Impressive stuff, no?
No, it really wasn’t.
First off, the opponent was the Las Vegas Raiders. If this team isn’t deliberately tanking, then the entire organization needs to be banned from the NFL.
I’m convinced the Odessa Permian Panthers could beat the Raiders.
And that is with the Panthers spotting the Raiders a touchdown before the opening kickoff.
But let’s focus on Sanders’ numbers. He had three passes over 20 yards.
His 52-yard pass to Isaiah Bond was underthrown.
Bond was wide open and behind the defense.
An accurate ball and Bond scores. It was a nice throw on the run, but a throw every NFL quarterback is able to make.
He had a nice 39-yard pass to Jerry Jeudy, who promptly fumbled the ball away.
But most of the Sanders’ fanbase points to his 66-yard touchdown pass as proof of Sanders’ “greatness”.
Except Sanders threw the pass to running back Dylan Sampson several yards behind the line of scrimmage. Sampson, his downfield blocking, and the Raiders’ porous defense, made that touchdown happen.
There wasn’t anything special that Sanders did to directly lead to the score.
That’s 157 yards on three passes, with over 70 coming after the catch. Which means Sanders was 8-of-17 for 52 yards for the rest of the game.
He had one interception on a poorly thrown pass. He should have had at least one more.
He’ll see a real NFL defense on Sunday when the Browns host the 49ers on Sunday.
I suspect we’ll see Gabriel in this game after halftime. It should also be the end of the calls to start Sanders for the rest of the year.
The “Shedeur Simps” are giving the “Dak Defenders” a run for their money on the worst fanbase for a single player.
At least Dak Prescott has the regular season numbers to justify the loyalty from his fanbase.
Prescott is starting to take over several Cowboys’ franchise passing records. In the regular...
