Shedeur Sanders has the most important start of his young career on Sunday when he leads his 5-3 Cleveland Browns to the Superdome to take on the 2-5 New Orleans Saints, who are coming off a bye week and are looking for their first win at home all year. Sanders will be filling in for Deshaun Watson, who surprisingly beat him out for the starting job in Week 1 and even more surprisingly, has been playing his best football in years to get this team back to contender status in the AFC.
Sanders likely doesn’t have a chance to take the starting job permanently, but he needs to prove to himself, these fans, and 31 other teams that he has taken a step forward in his development. He’ll have a much better offense around him this time compared to last season, and the pressure is on for him to make sure this team doesn’t miss a beat with a new quarterback under center.
During a recent episode of The 3rd Estimate on BIGPLAY Cleveland, former Browns QB Garrett Gilbert shared his advice for Shedeur Sanders. He stressed the importance of communication given the fact that they’ll be in a dome.
“Down there in the dome, it’s gonna be loud. Nothing can prepare you for that, so the communication has to be on point. You ought to know where to go with the football on the first 15 plays of the game,” Gilbert said.
"Down there in the dome, it's gonna be loud. Nothing can prepare you for that, so the communication has to be on point. You ought to know where to go with the football on the first 15 plays of the game." #DawgPound
– Former Browns QB Garrett Gilbert's advice for Shedeur pic.twitter.com/3i3SocUoDD
— BIGPLAY Cleveland (@BIGPLAYcle) November 7, 2026
This will be Sanders’ second NFL start in a dome after he made his debut in Allegiant Stadium against the Las Vegas Raiders last season. That stadium wasn’t as loud as the Superdome will be since the Raiders were the worst team in football last season and don’t typically have the most raucous home crowds, so Gilbert’s advice is something Sanders should certainly take to heart.
The best way to make this an easy transition for Sanders is for the running game to get cooking, which hasn’t happened much this season. The Saints have the fourth-worst run defense in the league and are giving up 139.4 yards per game on the ground, so if there were ever a time for Quinshon Judkins to have a huge performance, it’d be this Sunday.
Hopefully the offense can do just as Gilbert said and get off to a great start with a smooth first 15 plays or so to help Sanders settle in. For a defense giving up over 34 points per game in the Superdome, it’s a golden opportunity for Sanders to have the best performance of his young career and prove he does have the ability to potentially be a franchise QB at some point.
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