Shedeur Sanders hesitated.
And he lost.
Sanders wasn’t as aggressive as he’d like in his second start last week. He had receivers open but didn’t feel comfortable letting it rip and missed numerous opportunities for completions. The Browns scored only one touchdown and lost 26-8 to the 49ers.
“Go out there and see it and just hit it,” Sanders said this week of what improvements he needed to make after watching the film. “Really understand that, trust my eyes, understand everything that I’ve been studying. And the game, I’ll say it’s slowing down a little bit for me and just trust what I see.”
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Sanders fell to 1-1 as the starter. He’ll get another chance today in a matchup of the two most discussed quarterback prospects in the 2025 draft. The Titans (1-11) took Cam Ward No. 1 before the Browns could at No. 2. The Browns didn’t view another passer worthy of a top-five pick and wound up taking Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Sanders in the fifth after trading up.
At the start of the predraft process, Ward and Sanders going Nos. 1 and 2 was a popular scenario. They also trained together, but Sanders downplayed the personal matchup provides extra juice.
“I’m just excited for an opportunity to go out there and play,” he said. “Last week’s showing wasn’t the best, so just having the opportunity to go out there and play.
“It’s a lot of great quarterbacks week by week that we play against. So I wouldn’t say this adds anything.”
The Ward-Sanders storyline and comparisons aren’t going away. First, Sanders hopes to fix the biggest problem from his last outing.
The numbers weren’t bad — 16-for-25 for 149 yards, a touchdown, three sacks — but the Browns needed more production in the pass game to accompany 138 yards on the ground. Sanders insisted he saw the field well, but the disconnect came when he had to let it fly.
“Just trusting my eyes, believing the preparation I’ve been doing,” he said. “Everything has been working and I get out there and I see it, and that’s what I’m most excited about. And I know the results are going to come when they come and I feel like they’re going to come soon. But the fact I’m able to go out there and I’m able to see it, that’s what brings me joy on the inside.”
Coordinator Tommy Rees got into a rhythm as a play caller and gave Sanders chances to make throws over the middle and down the field.
“There’s certainly some opportunities he probably wants back, and that’s going to happen with a young player,” Rees said “You’re seeing things, and things are moving quicker than you’re used to. And every rep he gets, every opportunity he gets, he’s going to get more and more comfortable.
“Those are opportunities to point out, ‘hey, this is what open looks like,’ or ‘this is the defender that our eyes need to be on’, and trust that you’re going to make this throw. And in the same vein, he makes a lot of those plays too. So it’s building comfort across the game plan, across the concepts, across the coverages he could see to make sure that we can maximize all the opportunities we have. But he’s done a nice job throughout the week of communicating and seeing things, and ‘hey, I need another rep of this because I want to see it again.’ All those points are really positive and moving in the right direction.”
Receiver Jerry Jeudy seemed to be the target who was open the most but didn’t get the ball. It began on the first third down when he was free on a crossing route but Sanders didn’t throw it until he had turned upfield and sailed the pass over his head. In the second half Jeudy and Sanders argued on the sideline as they disagreed on San Francisco’s coverage and where the ball should’ve gone.
Building confidence in, and chemistry with, Jeudy and the other receivers is a major talking point for Sanders.
“Trust takes time,” he said. “Taking risk is like, it’s hope. It’s seeing it, but then it’s a bit of hope in there. So I think it takes time and time on task and being in different battles with each other, being able to see, review everything.”
While Sanders waited for his chance, and practice time with the starters, Ward was the Day 1 starter in Tennessee. Ward knows what to expect in their first matchup in the NFL.
“Just being in another dogfight,” he told reporters in Nashville. “From the game we played in college to now, he’s a good quarterback. Really, just seeing both of us grow, just within ourselves, within the game of football, learn everything. So I’m excited to see how he does.”
Their training sessions before the draft were competitive.
“We just both want to be great players,” Ward said. “I just think it’s going to be exciting for just a lot of people to see what both of us would be able to do when we play at a high level.”
They said they don’t talk or text during the season but are there for each other if needed.
Ward has shown flashes of why he was the no-brainer No. 1 pick but has struggled overall along with the offense and team. Coach Brian Callahan was fired during the season, and Ward has completed 59.7 percent for 2,351 yards, seven touchdowns, six interceptions, a league-high 48 sacks and a league-worst 75.2 passer rating.
“He’s talented, he’s a playmaker and he has great arm talent,” said Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, who needs four sacks to break the NFL’s single-season record with 23. “Just the game’s got to slow down a little bit more for him and I think it will in time.”
The Browns never had a chance at Ward because the Titans weren’t trading the No. 1 pick. But Cleveland’s coaches, front office and ownership spent a lot of time with him during the process.
“Competitive, like ultra-competitive,” Rees said, noting Ward made nine straight free throws in a contest during his visit to Berea. “Really enjoyed our time with Cam, we’ll be a fan of his and rooting for him. His family was great, he has a good way about him, confident, ultra-competitive, made up of the right stuff.”
Playing quarterback as a rookie is difficult enough. Doing so with questionable supporting casts makes it all the tougher. The Titans are last in the league with 14.2 points a game and 242.4 yards. The Browns are 29th (16.2) and 31st (258.0).
“I just think both of us have the ability to learn different offenses, different aspects of football, how you have to see the game,” Ward said. “And just the things that we can do inside the building to help bring people together, I just think that’s the best things about both of us.”
Sanders isn’t interested in waiting to be great.
“I don’t view things as like patient. I guess that’s the outside world,” he said. “That’s not nothing I live in within my world. I think I’m more determined and focused on knowing I got to do what it takes to get the results for the team that we need to be successful. So I think it’s certain areas that I need to improve in quickly. Just because I’m a rookie, that’s not really an excuse out there.”
