But his game against the Los Angeles Rams was brutal. His critics will use it as fuel.
Sanders completed 3 of 6 passes for 14 yards and was sacked five times. He looked lost.
I want Shedeur Sanders to succeed. There, I said it.
I believe Sanders has been held to brutal and unfair standards by the NFL and some fans. I think he’s paying for the ‘sins’ of his father, Deion Sanders, who some coaches and front offices in the league don’t like because Deion is so flamboyant.
This is not breaking news. I’ve heard this. Talked about this. Others have. The league wanted to teach Shedeur (and his father) a lesson, and they did just that with the draft.
When Eric Dickerson said this recently, it was dismissed by some as a cranky old man yelling at clouds. It’s not that I believe Dickerson, it’s that this is the NFL. You cover the NFL long enough and you know how the league works. They are Weyland-Yutani from ‘Alien.’ They are The Company. With the league, all is possible.
‘I tell you this much,’ Dickerson said, ‘what I heard from someone that’s in the NFL that the NFL told [teams], ‘Don’t draft him, do not draft him. We’re going to make an example out of him.’ And this came from a very good source, a very good source.’
Dickerson added: ‘He said that – I won’t say who – somebody called the Cleveland Browns and said, ‘Don’t do that, draft him,” Dickerson said. ‘Because they weren’t going to draft him either. … They were forced into drafting him because somebody made a call to them.’
This all sounds like conspiratorial nonsense, but again, we’re talking about Weyland-Yutani here.
I buy at least some of it.
However. Having said that.
There is an unmistakable truth about what we saw with Sanders on Saturday against the Rams. Sanders was terrible. Just absolutely awful. It was genuinely shocking to see.
This was a different Sanders than we saw in his game against Carolina several weeks ago. Then he completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. He was fluid, dynamic and skilled. He looked like a player who could push for the starting job. Sanders was that good.
Then came this game. It was the oppo-Sanders. He was 3 of 6 for 14 yards in five drives. Sanders was also sacked five times. Some of those sacks weren’t his fault. Some of them were. But he looked absolutely lost.
Maybe he was still hurting from an oblique injury that sidelined him for a few days. We also don’t know everything about the players who were on the field around him. Maybe they weren’t very good. But what’s certain is that neither was he.
His bad outing also comes on the day that Dillon Gabriel looked good. Gabriel looked so good that the battle between him and Sanders came to an obvious end. Gabriel won. Gabriel won because overall he was more consistent. Not spectacular. But good and consistent. He looks reliable, and that’s what an NFL head coach wants from his quarterback.
What Sanders’ outing will do is cause people to say: we told you so. We told you he was overrated. There was no conspiracy, you lunkheads. He was a media creation (I wish I had this kind of power.)
And right now, sitting here – and it’s painful to admit – Sanders’ critics look more right than the people who want to see him succeed. And, again, I’m the latter.
That’s what you’ll hear and maybe that is correct. Maybe Sanders is overrated and teams knew something about his skillset that we didn’t. I don’t believe this. I’d like to see more from Sanders before coming to that conclusion, but that’s what will be said about him. And to be clear it’s not unfair.
It’s wrong, but it’s not unfair.
Sanders has shown flashes of talent, and if I were the Browns, I’d keep him on the roster, and see all that’s there. That seems to be the likely conclusion, but who the hell knows.
I want Sanders to succeed …
… but this day was bad.
