Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders threw an incompletion against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, and it signaled growth.
Facing third-and-8 from Tennessee’s 20-yard line late in the first quarter, Sanders stood in the pocket for a few seconds as he scanned the field for an open wide receiver. As no player broke free and a Titans pass rusher barreled down on Sanders, he pirouetted to evade a sack and dodged another rusher as he continued to search for a pass catcher to separate downfield.
Finally, the rookie stopped in his tracks and heaved the ball out of bounds.
“It ends up being an incomplete,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday, “but he scrambled around, was looking to make a play, nobody wiggled open, and he threw the ball away, and we got points out of that. I think that’s good progress for a young quarterback. You have to know that it’s a fine line of, ‘I’m trying to make a play for my football team, and I’m also going to be smart here because I have points.’
“You learn that from playing, you learn that from being in these games. And I think he’s making progress there.”
As Sanders prepares for his fourth NFL start in Sunday’s road game against the Chicago Bears (1 p.m. ET, Fox), he’s increasingly found the balance between holding the ball in search of big plays and learning when to see another down. It’s a quick-snap judgment that will be tested against a Chicago defense that leads the NFL with 18 interceptions.
Sanders, on multiple occasions and dating to the NFL combine in February, has acknowledged that he tends to hold onto the ball too long. He took an FBS-high 42 sacks in his final season at Colorado, and while much of it can be attributed to a poor offensive line, there were times when Sanders could have gotten rid of the ball sooner.
This season, Sanders has had an average time to throw of 3.39 seconds, which would rank the highest of all quarterbacks if he had enough starts to qualify. Sanders has also held the ball for longer than four seconds on 22.3% of his dropbacks, according to NFL Next Gen Stats; the next closest is Bears quarterback Caleb Williams at 16.7%.
Sanders holding the ball for an extended time has been a gift and a curse in his young career.
There are times, such as late in the Browns’ comeback bid against the Titans, in which it has been to his benefit, and he has produced explosive plays. Other times, it has hurt him and Cleveland’s offense, such as when he refused to get rid of the ball on a third-down play against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 12, and the Browns were pushed out of field goal range after he was sacked.
Sanders threw a third-quarter interception against the Titans on an extended play — one that allowed Tennessee to retake a lead that it wouldn’t relinquish — but he is quickly learning when to give up on a play and when to push his limits.
“Sometimes you get in situations where you got to understand the play’s over, and I’m improving in that,” Sanders said. “I had a little slipup last week for sure when knowing the play’s over. But, like, I don’t know — in those situations, sometimes it’s just like, I want to win so bad, I want to make something happen whenever we’re stagnant and stuff like that.
“So just learning, like from the week before when I took a sack that got us out of field goal position. I learned from that, and I was like, ‘OK, knowing where we are in the field’, understanding, like, ‘OK, I tried my first thing, it don’t work, get it out.’ So, then I won’t negatively affect the team.”
Since making his first start in Week 12, Sanders has been adept at avoiding sacks. According to ESPN Research, he has been sacked on 15.7% of his dropbacks when pressured, a rate that ranks ninth best out of 44 quarterbacks with at least 100 action plays.
For Stefanski and his coaching staff, the aim is getting Sanders comfortable with running the offense and then allowing him to use his playmaking skills — within reason — when necessary.
“You look around the league, and there’s a lot of quarterbacks that have always made plays outside the structure of their offense from when they were young to when they get to the pros,” Stefanski said. “And you never want to take that away from a player. And Shedeur has an ability to make plays off schedule, so that’s something that you certainly want to promote and enhance and get the team playing to that style as well.
“You also want to make it easy for your quarterback when you can, and when you can get those completions on time and play within the rhythm of the offense, that makes you really difficult to defend as a quarterback. But you never want to take away that ability to make plays off schedule.”
