Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders accomplished something that hasn’t been done by a Browns player in 30 years when he led his team to a victory in his first career start in Week 12. Despite this, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski opted not to give him a game ball after the impressive outing, a decision he stands by heading into Week 13.
Some have been critical of how Stefanski has handled Sanders throughout his rookie season. Others have outright declared that there may be some underlying tension between the former Colorado product and his head coach, which led to him sitting on the bench for so long before he finally got his chance to start.
While Sanders outright denied those claims this week, the decision from Stefanski not to give Sanders a game ball certainly didn’t sit right to some media talking heads.
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The former Coach of the Year discussed not giving Sanders a game ball this week, explaining how he simply believed that All-Pro edge rusher Myles Garrett deserved the recognition after his three-sack performance.
“Every game, you go into it trying to just highlight guys,” said Stefanski. “Myles [Garrett] got a game ball. I thought he was probably pretty worthy. But you’re just trying to constantly recognize your guys. We spent time [this week], as well, pointing out all of our guys and the jobs they did. Pointed out Gage Larvadain having a big punt return, which was huge for our team. Your D-line doesn’t get 10 sacks unless the coverage is really good. Obviously, a rookie starting his first game on the road getting a win is huge. So you acknowledge all that with your team.”
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To be fair to Stefanski, he did acknowledge Sanders in his postgame speech following the Week 12 win. So it’s not like Sanders’ solid performance went unnoticed.
Still, we have seen instances where other coaches around the league give game balls to multiple players that made a big impact. It certainly would have been nice for Sanders to get a game ball to not only remember his first career start, but also know that he has the support of the Browns coaching staff.
On the bright side, Sanders is set to start for Cleveland in its Week 13 game against the San Francisco 49ers. So maybe he can continue to prove to Stefanski that he is the right man to lead the Browns’ franchise into the future at the quarterback position.
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