30 years on, Sheduer Sanders can make history as Browns starter

For the first time in his professional career, Shadeur Sanders will start in the NFL on Sunday afternoon.

The Cleveland Browns quarterback started the year well down the pecking order but a series of trades and a recent injury to starter Dillon Gabriel have bumped him up. Sanders took first-team reps this week with Gabriel sidelined and he now looks to end an unfortunate run for first-time starters.

The last time a Browns quarterback won on the first career start was in 1995. Incredibly, Browns QBs are 0-17 in their first pro starts since 1999.

That run is evidence of the struggles that Cleveland has had at quarterback for more than two decades. The Browns have had 42 different starting quarterbacks since 1999, the most in the entire league. In seven of the last 12 seasons, at least three different QBs have started for Cleveland.

If Sanders is to buck the trend he will have to improve on a poor performance off the bench last weekend. He played the entirety of the second half against the Baltimore Ravens but went 4 for 16, passing for just 47 yards.

“I don’t think I played good,” Sanders told ESPN after the game. “I don’t think I played good at all.”

“I think there’s a lot of things we need to look at during the week and go and just get comfortable with even throwing routes with Jerry [Jeudy] and throwing routes with all those guys. I think that was my first ball to him all year. But other than that, I just think overall, we just got to go next week and understand, so that we have a week to prepare stuff I like to do.”

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