The deep ball can change everything for an offense. A quarterback who can hit receivers 50 or 60 yards downfield forces defenses to back off, which opens up the run game and the short passing game underneath. Few things swing momentum faster than a big completion over the top. In his first start of the season, Shedeur Sanders showed he has that kind of throw in his bag.
Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN pointed out how rare Sanders’ deep passing has been over the last 2 seasons.
“Sanders had two completions of 60-plus yards against the Saints, bringing his total on such throws to three since the beginning of last season. That’s tied with Aaron Rodgers and Sam Darnold for the most in the NFL over that span. Watson had one such completion this season,” Oyefusi wrote.
The 2 big plays came from the Browns’ rookie receivers. Sanders found Denzel Boston for 60 yards, then hit KC Concepcion for a 64-yard touchdown that gave Cleveland the lead late in the 4th quarter. ESPN Research also noted the Browns became just the 3rd team since the 1970 merger with 2 rookies catching 60-yard passes in the same game.
The stat is even more impressive considering how little Sanders has played. He made only a handful of starts late last season and spent the first 8 games of this year as the backup. Rodgers and Darnold have been starters for that entire stretch, and Sanders has still matched them.
Oyefusi did not hand out only praise, though. He noted that Sanders’ 31% success rate on dropbacks was the 2nd-lowest mark for the Browns this season, and that there were some operational issues that showed his inexperience. Sanders started slowly, much like Deshaun Watson has in most of his games, before heating up late.
That is the trade-off with Sanders right now. He brings an explosive element the offense has lacked, but the play-to-play consistency is still a work in progress.
The question now is what Todd Monken does with all of it. Watson has cleared the concussion protocol and has led all 5 of the Browns’ wins with late scoring drives. Sanders, meanwhile, just showed an ability to stretch the field that Watson has not matched this year.
The Browns host the Houston Texans on Sunday. Whoever starts, Sanders made it clear that the deep ball can be a real weapon in this offense.
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