Shedeur Sanders Reportedly Set to Be Browns' QB1 vs. Raiders Amid Gabriel Concussion

The Cleveland Browns are expected to Shedeur Sanders at quarterback for Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Raiders, according to Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot. This comes after Dillon Gabriel suffered a concussion in a Week 11 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Cabot noted that Sanders is expected to start "barring some unexpected occurrence," with Bailey Zappe serving as the backup. For much of the 2025 season, a section of fans have lobbied for Sanders to become Cleveland's starter. His failure to move up the depth chart sparked plenty of discussion and was occasionally something Stefanski had to address. While it's too early to make any concrete judgments about the fifth-round pick, his cameo against the Ravens illustrated why Stefanski kept him as the backup until left with no other choice. Sanders threw a 25-yard strike to tight end Harold Fannin Jr. late in the fourth quarter as the Browns were trying to get the game-tying score. That was his only real highlight, though. The former Colorado star finished 4-of-16 for 47 yards and an interception. He also suffered two sacks for a loss of 27 combined yards. "I don't think I played good," Sanders told reporters. "I don't think I played good at all. I think there's a lot of things we need to look at during the week and go and just get comfortable with even throwing routes with [wide receiver] Jerry [Jeudy] and throwing routes with all those guys. I think that was my first ball to him all year. But other than that, I just think overall, we just got to go next week and understand, so that we have a week to prepare stuff I like to do." Those preaching patience with Sanders were justified. When he hasn't had first-team reps in a game or even across multiple practices, his eventual debut was always going to be rough. Still, the second half of the Ravens game laid bare how much work he has to become a good starter. In particular, Sanders' feel in the pocket is really lacking. On multiple occasions, he lost more yards than he should've by extending plays rather throwing the ball out of bounds or going down earlier. Stefanski clearly wasn't swayed by what he saw from Sanders. He told reporters Gabriel would resume starting duties once he cleared the NFL's concussion protocol. Of course, Gabriel's availability for Week 12 hinged on him getting the green light from the team's medical staff, and that wasn't a foregone conclusion. At this point, who starts for the Browns is largely irrelevant. The team is 2-8 with little hope of reaching the playoffs. The rest of the season is at least an opportunity to get more tape on Sanders and Gabriel to see whether either is a good long-term solution. On the basis of the evidence so far, Cleveland will be back in the market for a quarterback this offseason.