Cleveland Browns make big Shedeur Sanders decision: Will he start against 49ers?

Shedeur Sanders will retain the starting spot for the Cleveland Browns despite the return to fitness of fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel.

Browns coach Kevin Stefanski announced the news on Monday, reflecting on the team’s 24-10 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. Sanders had been made to wait for his first NFL start but he was given his opportunity against the Raiders while Gabriel was sidelined due to the concussion protocol.

Sanders completed 11 of his 20 passes and recorded his first NFL touchdown in a statement performance.

“The No. 1 job of a quarterback is to win,” Stefanski told reporters on Monday. “So, excited to get that first win under his belt. And the next thing is improvement, and that’s what young players do. Certainly, young quarterbacks do. You get one game better, and that’s just from working at it. So, that’ll be our focus.”

However Stefanski stopped short of naming Sanders as the team’s permanent starter at quarterback. He said: “I’m just going to focus on this week. Not going to get much past this week.”

With that Raiders victory, Sanders become the first Browns quarterback in 30 years to win his first NFL start while playing on the team. The last to do it was Eric Zeier in 1995. Stefanski was under no illusions as to the importance of that win.

“First start for any quarterback, you’re always going to make sure that the operation is how you want it, and I thought by and large was good,” Stefanski said.

“There’s things that we can clean up and obviously that goes on all of us. That’s coaches, that’s the players, the quarterback, where we can clean up some of our operation. But I thought communication was really good throughout the day with him."

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