Shedeur Sanders had a strong performance in last week’s loss to the New Orleans Saints with 325 total yards and a pair of late touchdowns with no turnovers. Despite the strong outing, Deshaun Watson remains the starter now that he has cleared concussion protocol and will look to take down his former team in the Houston Texans to ensure the Browns don’t slip back to .500 and potentially end their playoff push.
Many fans assumed Sanders would be the starter at this point of the season, but Watson has been the stabilizing veteran force this offense needed. He has led game-winning drives in all five of the team’s wins this year, but some, including Skip Bayless, are ready to see Shedeur take over.
During a recent episode of the Double Coverage Podcast, Bayless called out the Browns for what feels like the millionth time, saying they don’t like a lot of things about Sanders and that Monken never loved him.
“I don’t believe Todd Monken ever really loved Shedeur. They don’t like his style. They don’t like his swagger. They don’t like his jewelry. They don’t like the watch tap and that the father could ultimately be a threat to the head coach of the NFL team,” Bayless said.
This is a tired narrative. If any of this were true, the Browns would have sent Sanders elsewhere at this point. Monken heaped praise upon his young quarterback before and after his start last week and earlier in the offseason raved about his in-person meeting with Deion Sanders when Coach Prime stopped by at training camp.
There is zero threat of a 4-6 Big 12 coach who just so happens to be the backup quarterback’s father taking Todd Monken’s job. To suggest that after Shedeur has been on the team this long is utter nonsense, especially now as Monken has done such a great job halfway through his first year at the helm.
Sanders naturally generates a ton of headlines due to his last name and his flashiness, but he has done all the right things since coming to Cleveland. He has displayed nothing but admirable character traits that you love to see in a young quarterback and some of these narratives simply need to be put to bed. The focus should simply be on his development as a quarterback, not the clothes or jewelry he wears.
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