On the day the Browns benched veteran quarterback Joe Flacco for rookie Dillon Gabriel, it’s natural for the media to seek comments from Flacco, Gabriel, and the team’s other quarterback: rookie Shedeur Sanders.
And so Sanders met with reporters in the locker room. In response to every question, he smiled, moved his mouth, but didn’t speak.
It’s unclear whether miming answers satisfies the league’s media policy. In past situations, the NFL’s position has been that the player only has to be available to take questions; answers don’t have to be given. For Marshawn Lynch, it was acceptable to repeatedly say, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
It’s also unclear why Sanders opted for silence. He was possibly unwilling to toe the party line regarding the depth chart, which still has him at No. 3. Or maybe he was responding to the reaction to his recent remarks regarding his readiness to play — and his belief that he’s better than some quarterbacks who are playing.
Then there’s the possibility that he would have been asked about his decision to ask the Ravens not to draft him, given that he’d be playing this week (if he had beaten out Cooper Rush to be the primary backup to Lamar Jackson).
Regardless, Shedeur made a headline on the day Gabriel leapfrogged Flacco. Even if he did it without saying a single word.
