Shedeur Sanders didn’t spend Wednesday trying to sell a new version of the Cleveland Browns offense. With Deshaun Watson in concussion protocol and Sanders potentially on deck to start against the New Orleans Saints, the second-year quarterback spent most of his media session doing something else entirely: backing up the man he might replace.
When asked how he could help Cleveland get going earlier in games, Sanders made it clear he wasn’t interested in turning Watson into a talking point.
“Just my job. I don’t think it been bad.
How many wins we got? It can’t be that bad, you know,” Sanders said.
“I don’t want to just come in here and just try to discredit, you know, what Deshaun done and everything he done.”
The Browns are 5-3, and Sanders framed his role around keeping that momentum moving. He said he wasn’t looking to make himself look better by comparing his own approach to Watson’s.
“That don’t make me feel good as a person,” Sanders said. “I think it’s just doing my job, not doing too much, doing what I have to do.”
Watson’s status changed after a helmet-to-helmet hit in Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh. According to the team’s injury statement, he cleared his initial evaluation and the follow-up checks after the game and again Monday morning, before reporting Tuesday that symptoms started Monday night.
Head coach Todd Monken confirmed Watson had entered concussion protocol. Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported Wednesday that the expectation around Browns headquarters was Sanders would start against New Orleans, though Monken had not officially ruled Watson out.
Sanders said he found out about the possibility at the same time reporters did. When asked how he was preparing, he kept it simple.
“The same way how I’ve been preparing every week. No different.”
He also stressed that the locker room’s existing relationships matter more than any outside debate about how the offense might look with him under center. Sanders said the adjustment seemed more complicated from the outside than it does inside the building.
“Deshaun led us this far and it’s unfortunate he wasn’t able to go out there, you know, but on my end, you know, I just got to step up for the quarterback room, for the team and do what I have to do,” Sanders said.
His message for what Cleveland needs from him didn’t change much from there.
"Just go out there and trust my teammates, trust the game plan and do everything I can...I ain’t really trying to ride the roller coaster life, you know, I like to keep everything even,” said Shedeur.
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