Ben SolakNov 25, 2025, 06:45 AM ETCloseBen Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.
play2:29Stephen A. gets fired up over this Shedeur Sanders debateStephen A. Smith, Cam Newton and Dan Orlovsky get tense when debating whether Shedeur Sanders should’ve beeN taken out at the goal line during the Browns’ win over the Raiders.
play1:55Damien Woody: The Cowboys’ win over the Eagles added rocket fuel to their seasonDamien Woody and Rex Ryan react to the Cowboys’ comeback victory over the Eagles.
play0:51Schefter: Will Campbell’s injury doesn’t seem to be season-endingAdam Schefter reports that the Patriots are optimistic that Will Campbell won’t miss the rest of the season.
play1:02Orlovsky: The Giants’ head coach job is very appealingDan Orlovsky and Rex Ryan discuss why the Giants’ head coach job will be coveted in the offseason.
Eisen: Starting Shedeur is the only decision the Browns could have made (1:58)Rich Eisen details why the Browns had no choice but to start Shedeur Sanders in Week 13. (1:58)
Stephen A. gets fired up over this Shedeur Sanders debateStephen A. Smith, Cam Newton and Dan Orlovsky get tense when debating whether Shedeur Sanders should’ve beeN taken out at the goal line during the Browns’ win over the Raiders.
Stephen A. Smith, Cam Newton and Dan Orlovsky get tense when debating whether Shedeur Sanders should’ve beeN taken out at the goal line during the Browns’ win over the Raiders.
Bart Scott and Peter Schrager discuss how dominant Will Anderson Jr. and the Texans’ defense were against the Bills.
Damien Woody: The Cowboys’ win over the Eagles added rocket fuel to their seasonDamien Woody and Rex Ryan react to the Cowboys’ comeback victory over the Eagles.
Schefter: Will Campbell’s injury doesn’t seem to be season-endingAdam Schefter reports that the Patriots are optimistic that Will Campbell won’t miss the rest of the season.
Adam Schefter reports that the Patriots are optimistic that Will Campbell won’t miss the rest of the season.
Orlovsky: The Giants’ head coach job is very appealingDan Orlovsky and Rex Ryan discuss why the Giants’ head coach job will be coveted in the offseason.
The Big Thing: Cleveland needs to see more of Sanders
Week 12 is in the books! It was a great week for almost upsets, as the Giants led the Lions for much of their game, the Colts had the Chiefs exactly where they wanted them, and the Jets led the Ravens at the half. No lead was safe, including the 21-point one the Eagles — typically a paragon of lead management — built against the Cowboys.
Winning is hard in the NFL. Harder still? Writing NFL columns. Every Tuesday, I’ll spin the previous week of NFL action forward, looking at what the biggest storylines mean and what comes next. We’ll seek measured reactions to everyone’s overreactions, celebrate the exciting stuff that nobody is appreciating and highlight what you might have missed Sunday and Monday.
Jump to a section: Big Thing: Sanders’ first start Second Take: AFC South is wide open Things I think I think: Cowboys, Bengals, etc. Mailbag: Answering questions from … you Next Ben Stats: Wild Week 12 stats
Every week, this column will kick off with one wide look at a key game, player or trend from the previous slate of NFL action. What does it mean for the rest of the season? This week, we’re looking at the highs and lows of Shedeur Sanders’ first NFL start and whether the Browns should roll with him the rest of the season.
On Sunday, the Browns started their third quarterback of the season when fifth-round rookie Sanders took the opening snap against the Raiders. Sixty minutes later, the Browns had their third win of the season, too, beating the Raiders 24-10 for their first road victory since Week 2 of last season. For the first time in 435 days, the Browns experienced a victorious plane ride back to Cleveland. That’s a great feeling.
Sanders was tagged with the start only because Dillon Gabriel — also a rookie, drafted two rounds before Sanders — suffered a concussion in Cleveland’s Week 11 loss to the Ravens and was inactive. In most contexts, a spot start for a late-drafted rookie QB2 would garner little national interest. But because of Sanders’ productive college career, precipitous fall in the draft and royal NFL lineage, there were a few more eyeballs on this one.
To grade Sanders’ performance Sunday, let’s strip away the baubles and trappings of his career arc and focus on only his contemporaries.
Since 2000, 43 quarterbacks drafted in Round 5 or later (including undrafted free agents) have started a game in their rookie season. As you can imagine, most of these players were in Sanders’ shoes — QB2s or QB3s forced into late-season spot starts on bad football teams. Recent qualifiers include Spencer Rattler, Tyson Bagent, Tommy DeVito and Clayton Tune.
Here’s the average performance of the 42 quarterbacks who preceded Sanders in their first career starts, relative to Sanders’ performance against the Raiders.
Depending on how you slice it, you could call Sanders’ game better than average … or worse than average, which would of course be great for the discourse.
Sanders had only two completions further than 9 yards downfield in this game. That was the first, and here’s the second — a similar play. When DE Maxx Crosby spikes inside the tackle, Sanders rolls to his right. The Raiders bust the coverage, failing to pass off wide receiver Jerry Jeudy as he races across the field. Easy pitch and catch for an explosive gain … before the fumble.
That said, Sanders’ down-to-down consistency actually matches what we’ve come to expect from Browns quarterbacks so far this season. Compare Sanders’ start to Gabriel’s run and Joe Flacco’s tenure, and he actually produced a better first down/touchdown rate. Where he failed in dropback success rate, he made up for in explosive pass rate. He was off target more often but also threw downfield more.
Sanders also faced an average third-down distance of 11.6 yards, and 10 of his 21 dropbacks came on third down. This invites a more aggressive play style and accordingly volatile results.
The smart thing to do with all of this information would be … absolutely nothing. One start against the Raiders’ defense does not provide a clear picture. Take out the Sampson screen, and Sanders’ numbers plummet. Take away the Jeudy fumble, and his EPA per dropback jumps. The sample is too small to tell us anything concrete.
Sanders is right to throw the curl to Jeudy as edge rusher Charles Snowden initially clears the window while moving with the running back — but the ball has to be out now. Notice how Jeudy turns for the ball, then pats his feet for a beat as he waits for it to arrive. Notice Sanders’ feet as well. On a one-step drop, Sanders needs to land on his back foot ready to throw immediately. Instead, he hops to reset his foot and begin his throwing motion.
This isn’t nitpicking at all. Sanders does not have an above-average arm, especially when it comes to generating velocity on a line. In order to succeed at throwing into tight windows in the NFL, his timing needs to be impeccable.
On a later throw on the move, Sanders’ lack of premier arm talent appeared again. This is the sort of throw that Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones have been feasting on this season — a boot to the left.
It’s hard to get the full body into a throw like this, running opposite from the QB’s dominant hand. Sanders has a tighter trunk than most NFL QBs, so it’s difficult for him to get any snap from his hips to kick-start his throwing motion. This ball is all arm, and accordingly sails high and soft above the tight window in which he’s trying to hit Cedric Tillman.
This throw serves as a reminder that even in those predraft moments when we believed Sanders was a first-round quarterback, he was so despite athletic limitations. He is not particularly fast, big, physical, loose or strong-armed. Belief in his pro projection was predicated on intangibles — toughness, poise, vision, creativity — and those were all on display against the Raiders. But he’s fighting an uphill battle against dimensions and physics.
It’s hard to call Sanders’ debut start good, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it bad, either. I’ve watched plenty of late-drafted quarterbacks see the field in the past decade or so, and a few of those games have deeply offended me. (Looking at you, 2017 Nathan Peterman.) Sanders’ game didn’t.
Browns rookies accounted for 100% of the team’s passing yards, 100% of its rushing yards (114%, actually) and 75% of its receiving yards. According to Elias Sports Bureau, this has happened in only one other game since the 1970 merger. It was done by the 1974 Chargers, and they had 17 rounds of draft picks to work with, compared to the seven we have today. Hats off to Andrew Berry and the Browns’ personnel staff.
Stephen A. gets fired up over this Shedeur Sanders debate
The young Browns offense has bright spots galore, and the defense continues to shred. With a real quarterback, the arrow in Cleveland would strongly point up. That real quarterback probably isn’t on the roster right now, but the only way to find out is to play more games. San Francisco visits Cleveland next Sunday, travelling to the Eastern time zone on a short week with a defense that has struggled lately. Let’s stack some wins.
ESPN’s “First Take” is known for, well, providing the first take on things — the instant reactions. Second Take is not a place for instant reactions but rather where I’ll let the dust settle before taking perhaps a bit of a contrarian view.
The Colts have an offense problem, and more specifically, they have a passing game problem. Three of Daniel Jones’ worst four outings by EPA per dropback have been in the past three games (against the Steelers, Falcons and Chiefs).
A few dominoes are falling in the Colts’ offense, and the chain reaction is leading to bigger and bigger disappointments. The first is a crashing back down to Earth for Jones in one key metric: pressure-to-sack rate. This metric, which tracks the rate at which a quarterback turns his pressured dropbacks into sacks, is typically quite sticky. It had been relatively stable across Jones’ career … until the first half of the 2025 season, when it suddenly plummeted to league-best levels.