BEREA, Ohio — Shedeur Sanders plans to rebound from his three-interception Bears game Sunday against the 10-4 Bills, but knows that their second-ranked pass defense will try to confuse him, rattle him and pick him off some more.
“I’m just excited that I’m able to get everybody’s best,” Sanders said Wednesday. “That makes me feel proud that I have that. I’m just getting in the league and my feet settled and everything. So I get excited knowing I’m able to face those challenges because you’ve got to understand this, this year right here, this is the worst it’s going to be.
“It’s like this the foundation. This is where I’m building from. This is where I’m understanding different things. This is where everything’s translating for me. So I’m excited about it. I’m extremely excited about it because I know we’re going to get ‘em. I know we’re going to get ‘em eventually.”
Sanders, who slipped to 1-3 after the 31-3 rout by the Bears, got some sage advice recently from former Browns quarterback Jameis Winston, who’s gone 0-2 with the Giants over the past few weeks but threw for 366 yards in a loss to Detroit.
“I talked to Jameis a couple weeks ago, and then he went crazy,” Sanders said. “He threw for some crazy yards, but he was like, ‘nah bro, most important thing is to win.’ And having that guidance, having that knowledge from a vet like him, it truly helped me understand a little bit more. I always knew, of course, winning, and that’s the final goal. I’m not really looking at the numbers. I’m looking at the wins. So that achieves everything.
“That’s what everybody’s in this league to do. So you’ve just got to focus on that. The more plays you stack, the more completions you rack up, the better chance you have at winning. So have I been playing winning football lately? No, I don’t think so. It’s something I have self evaluated and I’m going to apply to my game.”
Asked how he knows Winston, he said, “I just know him.”
What did they connect over?
“We’re both people,” he said. “We’re both people. Jameis is not here right now, so I don’t think it’s respectful to speak on his behalf in the locker room full of other great teammates and other quarterbacks that’s here that’s helped giving me wisdom also. But that’s just a person, that’s just a thing that triggered me to just speak his name because that was a conversation we had at one point.”
Sanders heads into the Sunday’s game No. 46 in the NFL with a 68.1 rating, and No. 48 with a 52.2 completion percentage. In Chicago, behind a makeshift offensive line, he went 18 of 35 for 177 yards with 0 touchdowns against three interceptions, although the second one was Jerry Jeudy’s fault. His rating was a season-low 30.3, about 60 points below a quality NFL start.
“I’ve just got to play better,” Sanders said. “I just cannot make those costly turnovers and have the expectation to win.”
Sanders acknowledged that he can’t force things when the Browns fall behind, which is what happened on his third interception in the fourth quarter, an ill-advised throw to Harold Fannin Jr.
“I’ve just got to get more completions,” he said. “I’ve got to get more completions and even whenever we’re down or anything I can’t press. I just got to remain having those mental notes to myself. Just work within the game and just keep driving the ball. Get first downs.”
Sanders is still developing trust and timing with Jeudy, who had a well-thrown would-be TD pass snatched out of his hands for an interception in the third quarter. Jeudy, who caught a 60-yard TD against the Titans the week before, finished with only 2 of 4 targets for 22 yards.
“It’s always going to be a work in progress,” Sanders said about relationships. “All relationships ain’t always the best, but you still stick together through everything. So just because when we’re well-connected and the next week we are a bit off, it don’t mean that we didn’t have progress. It’s a lot of things in that game that there’s positive things that we could take from that. When it comes to trust, when it comes to different things, learning, learning abilities and just different things that different tasks take forward when the game happens. Every moment, everything is extremely important on building our connection.”
Jeudy, who’s second on the team to Fannin with 40 receptions and 519 yards, and tied for third with two touchdown catches, says it’s more than just getting his timing down with Sanders, who didn’t get any reps with the starters until before his first start five weeks ago.
“It’s just more film and understanding what they’re trying to get to overall,” Jeudy said. “That’s the biggest thing really. I don’t think that’s really a timing thing, it’s just more understanding like, ‘They’re showing the Cover-1 look, but they dropped to Cover-2 the whole time. But it’s little things like that.”
He rejected the notion that true chemistry with a quarterback comes only during games.
“I feel like it’s an everyday thing,” Jeudy said. “It’s always something new, always things that you need to adjust throughout the week depending who we’re playing and who we’re going against. So having that communication and having that understanding with your quarterback’s going to be helpful. It changes throughout the week. It’s constantly talking, constantly communicating and constantly understanding where we want to get.”
Jeudy noted that the communication must take place in the meeting room and throughout practice, and it’s “constantly trying to pick each other’s brain in seeing what we see out there and just learn from there. That’s all you can really do basically.”
While Jeudy’s had to pick his own spirits up this season, he’s also talked to Sanders about overcoming his bad game from last week.
“Just tell him one game don’t define who you are, it’s part of football,” he said. “Don’t let that dictate how you come out here and practice and trying to get better each and every week. Just keep being who you are and just stay focused and keep the main thing the main thing, for real.”
Sanders’ ability to hit the explosive plays during his four starts has helped the offense, Jeudy said.
“It opens up the offense a lot more just having defenders not sitting on our route and not really understanding and not really trying to stop the underneath,” he said. “They have to worry about the deep balls now. You’ve just got to keep hitting on that and keep getting better at that.”
But Sanders noted that he must do more than hit the explosives.
“We’ve got to be better, well-rounded all the way around,” he said. “We can’t just be a deep-ball thrower. We’ve got to be able to complete the stuff when it’s not there, when the deep ball is not there. So that’s what I’m trying to get better within my game.”
Is that stuff other stuff tougher for you?
“No, it’s not,” Sanders said. “That stuff requires (being on the) same page. Deep balls, the margin of error you have for them and those reps, it’s easier. But you’ve just got to always be on the same page (on the other things). The Tennessee game, the dialogue me and Jerry have, the dialogue me and all the receivers have, when it’s a different type of game, ‘Hey get your eyes around a little quicker. We’re going to have to get to these spots a little faster.’ It’s just playing on the same time, thinking the same thing. All of that stuff comes with understanding each other, and it’s a tough thing we’ve dealt with.”
Sanders might have right guard Wyatt Teller (limited on Wednesday with his calf injury) back this week, but right tackle Jack Conklin was still idle with his concussion. Regardless, Sanders knows teams will throw the house at him until he proves he can beat the pressure. The good thing is that he’s been able to slip plenty of sacks with his elusiveness, but the Bears still took him down five times and hit him 15.
“My whole career, I played under pressure, externally, on the field, off the field,” Sanders said. “That stuff doesn’t faze me. We’ve just got to be able to make it translate. We’ve all got to be on one accord. We’ve all got to be more of a team when it comes to that. So it’s just a work in progress and I’m excited about that.”
Bills coach Sean McDermott knows that Sanders is a big-play hunter, and that the Bills will have to be on point. This season, they’re tied for sixth in the NFL, allowing 35 passes of 20-plus yards. They’re first with only one of 40 yards or more, and 40 is their longest this season. Sanders had two of 40-plus just last Sunday in Chicago, with completions of 42 and 47 yards to Isaiah Bond.
“Good player, good young player, off to a great start,” McDermott said. “Dangerous with the tool set that he brings to the table. And he’s done a great job. I think their offense has actually ratcheted up since he’s been under center. So that’ll be a big challenge for us.”
Sanders, making just his fifth NFL start, will go head-to-head with reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen, who’s in the conversation to defend his title.
“He’s a great player,” Sanders said. “He’s really good.”
It’s what Sanders aspires to be on Sunday with the first of his three final chances to prove to the Browns he can be their guy.
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