Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski isn’t ready to reveal his plans for the quarterback depth chart in the wake of Tuesday’s trade of Joe Flacco, who was benched after four starts and served as the primary backup last week.
Rookie Shedeur Sanders, the emergency quarterback for the first five games, also wasn’t revealing much about what he knows about the team’s thinking on Thursday. But Sanders told reporters he’s ready if called upon, and ready to apply what he’s learned from his five months with Flacco and over the first five weeks, if his first regular-season action comes soon.
“In this room, we are gonna make sure we’re good and we’re all ready for the game,” Sanders said. “Each and every day, even when Joe was the starter, (the goal) was to go out there and prepare and be ready and know that you could get out there at any point in time.
“I’m overly confident in myself. I know when I first got here, you know (I was) ready to play. But it’s up to the coaches. Whatever decision they make, then I’m fine with it.”
Stefanski’s options behind rookie starter Dillon Gabriel are Sanders and Bailey Zappe, a four-year veteran with nine starts who’s been on Cleveland’s practice squad since late August. Stefanski hinted Wednesday that the Browns might lean on Zappe as the primary backup this week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, given Zappe’s experience and the team’s extended timeline for Sanders’ development. But Stefanski said no decisions would be made — or at least revealed — until the end of the week.
In the brief early practice viewing portions open to the media on Wednesday and Thursday, only Gabriel threw with the team’s active roster wide receivers.
Sanders told ESPN Cleveland last month that he felt he was ready and that he believed he was capable of playing better than most of the quarterbacks across the league had shown over the season’s first three weeks. Last week, Sanders only pantomimed answers when reporters approached him on the day Gabriel was named the Browns’ starter.
The pantomime interview came in the wake of ESPN analyst Rex Ryan, a former NFL head coach, saying Sanders was doing too much talking and not enough classroom work.
“I’m in a great mental space overall,” Sanders said Thursday. “I would say you tend to get a bit more excited when you see a light at the end of the tunnel, for sure. My job at first was to prepare the defense, and I think I did a pretty good job. Whatever my role is, I’m thankful and I’m happy.
“I think every day you learn something about yourself that you didn’t know the day before. I feel like now I’m ready — not saying I wasn’t ready before, but now I’m ready for whenever my opportunity is.”
When Ryan’s words were mentioned on Thursday, Sanders said he’s dealing with “no negativity.” He shared that he only had positive words and excitement for Gabriel after his promotion last week, and he said he’s grateful for the “gems” of wisdom imparted in the room by Flacco, an 18-year veteran who’s now the starter in Cincinnati following Tuesday’s trade.
“Being around Joe, we’re supposed to learn (from him) and eventually we’ve got to branch off,” Sanders said. “It’s kind of like me in college — you know, being with my dad and everything every step of the way, and now it’s time for me to find my own route. Overall, you value each and every day and who’s around you. You don’t know who’s gonna be here and who’s not, including yourself.
“Everybody here’s living their dream, and I’m living mine also. Thankful for the opportunity to come out every day and do something that we love.”
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