Rich Eisen on Shedeur Sanders’ Message to Critics in His First Cleveland Browns Start

Rich Eisen on Shedeur Sanders’ Message to Critics in His First Cleveland Browns Start

Let’s get to it cuz it finally happened. Shador Sanders started a football game for the Cleveland Browns. Now, I’m going to be honest with you. When it took forever for Shador Sanders to hear his name called in a craziest three-day stretch of a draft involving one single player that I can ever remember that we’ll ever see again. That also included him being pranked, all that crazy stuff. never thought in a million years that in relation to Shador Sanders starting, we’d hear his father’s name obviously, right? And we’d hear the name of whichever quarterback he was taking the job from, or at least needed to take the job for that Sunday because of the quarterback not being available or benched. It’s Dylan Gabriel not being available due to a concussion. Joe Flacco being sent away just like Kenny Picket. Never thought we’d hear the name of Eric Zy, that’s for sure. But he was the last quarterback the Cleveland Browns started and he wound up a winner in his first career game for Bill Bich back in 1995. It was such a stunning set of circumstances. Uh they closed the franchise in Cleveland. They moved. Wait a minute. I’m being told there were other reasons. Okay. But there’s Shadore out there and of all places, Las Vegas, Nevada, where Kenny Picket is standing on the sideline with an earbud where a lot of people thought the Raiders needing a backup for veteran Gino Smith or at least a plan for down the road would draft Shadore of all places for Shadore Sanders to get the start and he and you know early on not making the mistakes and the good news is they got another rookie in a very very good draft for the Cleveland Browns named Quinn Shawn Judkins. Good idea to give him the football, right? Don’t you think? Man, he’s so tough. And uh touchdown for him. And so now Shador can play with a lead. That’s what you need. You need him to play with a lead and he does. But at one point in this game early on, Isaiah Bond, who again the Cleveland Browns took when few others would for different reasons. He goes deep. Shador Sanders rolls to his right and unccors the throw on the run, jumping in the air. That was the Rick Dalton Jeff. There it is. Right there. That’s what he can do. That’s what he can do. Right there from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Right there. There it is. Right there. That’s not what uh Dylan Gabriel could do or Flaco could do or pick it could do or anybody else on that roster at any point in this season could do. That’s what he can do right there. Von jumps for the ball. If he just not jumped for it, maybe that would have been Shadur’s first career touchdown pass rather than the throwing it down the line of scrimmage to I love this Samson since Dion always likes to use some analogies from the good book. The good book although this Samson smelled with spelled with a P. Um, and he just takes it 66 yds for the distance. But in a similar play call, and again, I I love the kid. I love Dylan Gabriel. He came on the show. He couldn’t have been nicer. Dylan Gabriel had a similar throw. Rolling to his left and throwing back to his right in one of his starts and airme. Shador threw a beautiful pass all the way across the field and Samson did the rest for Shador’s first career touchdown. And then speaking of doing the rest, I said it on our um overreaction Monday podcast, so I’ll repurpose it if you will here. Maybe this is the first time you’re hearing this, but in Las Vegas, the horror movie analogy is in relation to the Vegas rookie running back’s pre-nap stance, right? the Jason stance for Ashton Genty. Stand up tall. That’s what he does. Unless Chip Kelly says don’t and then they’re like screw it. Do whatever you want. yada yada yada. Somebody’s not there anymore. You ain’t got to worry about that. So, um, but the calls coming from within the house, the horror movie analogy of anybody who watches a horror movie and you’re wondering why are you doing what you’re doing? because we all know that’s the guy with the axe. You don’t want to do that cuz the person’s coming for you with the axe. Um, the Grim Reaper was in Las Vegas, Nevada yesterday. Oh boy. Okay. Proving that F1 wasn’t the only fastest individuals in that city. Miles freaking Garrett. Look at it doesn’t look real. It doesn’t look real. It doesn’t look real. Feel like a real person. It doesn’t look real. Oh, it’s real. That was all Shadore not making the mistakes. He did make mistakes, but doing making the plays that were necessary, hitting Samson in stride or perfectly so he was able to get in stride and then hitting Bond and then not making mistakes, letting Judkins do his thing. Enough for Miles Garrett. Three sacks. Third game in the last four weeks with at least three sacks through 11 team games since sacks were recorded in 1982 by the way. What were they doing before 82? Right. When quarterbacks were getting taken down. Right. Hey, Deacon Jones has a lot of those. I think Deacon Jones came up with the term of sack because didn’t he have a job in a grocery store because guys back in the day had to have second jobs or something like that. I don’t know if that’s a a wives tale or not to use the phrase um that he would just bag up quarterbacks sacking them. Miles Garrett since the uh sack rate began to be a stat in 1982. He now has 18 through the first 12 game 11 team games that beats Mark Gastnau’s mark of 11 and a half in 1984. Uh Mike Deltu, before you were taking credit for the K Corner as a Met fan. Yes. Uh that you never were. Um that uh that that that is what gave birth to the New York Sack Exchange. I had a poster of I had a New York I had a poster of the New York Sack Exchange when I was a kid of Gassin, Cleco, Abdul Salam, and Marty Lions. You know, it’s interesting. Um Jason Garrett leads the league in in sacks with 18 Miles Garrett. Miles Garrett. What did I say? Jason Garrett. My Jason. I’m CL. But let me try and save this. Uh, by the way, that’s where you play the slow sports center theme. Yeah. Whenever I make a mistake. That’s Yeah, that’s right. You don’t want to be that guy. Miles Garrett, pardon me. I I’ll applaud for him. His 18 sacks right now leads the league. You know, his second with 13 sacks is Miles Garrett in the last four weeks. Strahan yesterday, I don’t know if you guys saw this, he basically said goodbye to his sack. I don’t blame him because it should have never been his in the first place. TJ Watt should be saying goodbye. Nice. Uh but Strahan in that sack record season um had the the record of of most sacks over a five game span, 12 and a half. Garrett’s now got 14 over his last five. Yeah. I mean, he’s had a game with five, four, and he had three on Sunday. So, that’s enough. That’s enough to make come up with a W against a team in Vegas that can’t protect the quarterback and can’t um put it all together for four quarters or is struggling to do so right now. And Shadur is in fact the first Browns quarterback to win in his first career start since the franchise reconstituted in Cleveland in 1999. And we know there’s been a lot of them. A lot. There’s been a lot of them too that that hope was poured into that obviously didn’t pan out. But this is what Shadore said after the game to the CBS broadcast. Win is crazy. It’s amazing, you know, off of one week of practice, you know what I mean? Just one week of practice. So imagine, you know, what a full off season look like. It it get dangerous, but it’s just a one week of practice. So I’m just truly thankful, you know, that everything happened. So I’m glad I’m glad he threw the humble part in at the end, you know, when the Sanders was showing through because otherwise that that would that would just light up half of, you know, uh the TV shows that precede us every single day. Wait a minute. I’m told it did. Anyway, my bad. He had this to say after the game as well. Uh, which one are we playing first, Mr. Hoskins? Oh, it’s thought just general thoughts at the podium. Everybody starts different places and and and like I say, just because I didn’t get the summer reps, you know, just because I wasn’t in in in the best situation um for me to be prepared to go out there and and execute like from a summer standpoint, um that’s how life is, you know. Everybody’s not in the right everybody’s not in the best situation, you know, but it’s no excuse. You got to go out there and perform. like there’s no choice, there’s no question. Nobody cares if this was one week of prep. Who cares, you know? So, a lot of people want to see me fail and it ain’t going to happen, you know. It ain’t going to happen. At least full Game of Thrones. Not today. Not today. Of course, he made some rookie mistakes. He made the ups and downs. Of course, we saw it. It wasn’t a perfect game, but he did what he needed to do with the support of his teammates to come up with a win for Cleveland and was humble in the process. Asked if he had a chip on his shoulder. No, I was a fifth round pick. I got skipped by everybody at least five times. So, so it’s not it it just come with the game, you know. It is what it is. But, um I’m just thankful for where I am now. You know, I I don’t Everybody have their differences. day of day. But I still got an opportunity to play. So why could I be mad? You know, money different, but thankfully I have a good family, you know. So it is what it is. We not playing for that. We playing for the love of the game. So I’m just thankful to be out here, have opportunity, be able to go and um play, go out there and play, go out there and start. Like you don’t know how surreal, you know, that feeling is knowing that you have the responsibility of the Browns organization on your shoulders. You know, having all the fans, you know, everybody in here arguing with each other online and everything. Everybody have their differences about me. It is what it is. I wonder how you don’t like that kid, man. I really I’m with you, T. I mean, they act like Dion, they say, well, they hold against his dad like Dion was some type of pariah. Dion was one of the most popular NFL players of all time, right? He had and he backed it up on the field. He backed it up on a on a diamond. He backed it up in commercials and selling shoes. So, I don’t understand this thing. Well, like they’re holding it against his dad. He also told a story about how I grew up in a 30 He told a story at the podium about he grew up in a 30,000 foot uh 30,000 foot uh square foot house, but his dad always took them to, you know, more disadvantaged parts of the town to let them understand the way that people live. And again, the whole reason why he went so long as he did is everybody thought, well, Dion is just going to helicopter dad this whole situation. And all he did was just get a spot up in a in a suite uh with uh with Constants who is the best. And also did you see the um all the smoke? I saw Matt and uh yeah I saw Matt and um Oh Jack I did see Jack too. He was sitting on it. Anyway, so so and did he hold a press conference afterwards? Dion? No. No. hugged it out with his son and then went off to finish his season in Colorado with at least something good happening in the Sanders family on the football field there. And I’ll tell you this, what he speaking of Browns fans, what he’s done is he g he’s given a little bit of hope, just a little bit of hope. So Kevin Stfansky after the game asked about what about next? You feel like he’s earned the opportunity to start? Yeah, I’m not going to get into that, Chris. obviously, you know, proud of him and proud of this offense and there are a ton of things to learn from, but I’m just going to, you know, worry about today. Come on. Come on, Kevin. Come on. 49ers are coming into your house next week. Come on. You want to see what fifth round pick can do against Mr. Irelevant? Short week with the Niners coming all the way east. Earlier we talked about um uh Shador Sanders’s first start and Kevin Stfansky not naming him as the starter right after the game and um you know for effect I screamed come on out. Did I did I make you jump a little bit when I screamed come on but a little bit that was serious part of it tongue and cheek for a bit. I don’t know if Kevin heard me but uh just moments ago this happened. Uh Shador will start this week. Uh obviously, you know, number one job of a quarterback is to win. So excited to get that first win uh under his belt. Uh and then next thing is improvement and that’s what young players do. Certainly young quarterbacks do. Uh you get one game better and that’s just from from working at it. So that’ll be our focus. Okay. And he’s got a good one to focus on it. Man, I do love this guy. I know Browns fans are disappointed, upset, another lost season, blah blah blah, but Stfansky is not a bad guy to have in the meeting room in your ear improving, working on it. And to me, this is the only decision I think he could have made. And it’s not because Dylan Gabriel’s still in the concussion protocol. They announced he’s out of it. This is a decision the coach has made. Or is it ownership? I don’t I’ll be honest with you, whatever it is, I want to see it. Otherwise, would I have been sitting down watching Browns 49ers next week? No. Am I watching sitting watching the 49ers and the Browns next week more closely? Yep. I will be. Absolutely. I will be. I know you have your doubts, Chris. You have reason to have your doubts. I know anybody else out there who’s taking a look at, you know, Shadore minus a couple throws yesterday, but he made the throws. He made them. And he didn’t make more mistakes than he made throws. There are more plays that you could say that’s right there. Rick Dalton GIF then Oh, right there is exactly why they didn’t start him before. Right there. There it is. Throw to Isaiah Bond. There it is. Hitting a wideopen guy in um Jerry Judy who decides to jump up in the air for whatever reason. Hop skipping and jumping and body surfing. Uh and again, no wide open. You know how many times JJ McCarthy missed some wide openen guys a couple weeks ago. You see guys miss wide openen guys all the time. He didn’t do it in that respect. And then of course let Samson do his thing. Samson I’m so psyched. I’m so psyched. And I’m psyched for Browns fans too, man. I’m psyched for them. Sure. I think for me it’s it’s organizational. Like they they have no choice. Like Stfansky is like I said earlier he’s he’s coaching for his job. So you’re going to do whatever that you think gives you the best chance to win this week. And this week it’s a it’s it’s starting shad. So they have no choice. They got to they got to do it. By the way, if he’s coaching for his job and the Browns decide to let him go, do you know how fast he’d get another job somewhere? Laugh all you want, man. I think the Giants would be brilliant to just hop on him and just say, “You come over here to New York. You tell Jackson Dart what to do.” Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that. Check us out every single day streaming live on Disney Plus and the ESPN app 12 to 3 Eastern.

Rich Eisen weighs in on Shedeur Sanders getting the win for the Cleveland Browns over the Las Vegas Raiders in his first NFL start.

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