Quarterback Shedeur Sanders will get his chance to show the Browns coaching staff what he can do this week.
The Colorado product will get the start against the Panthers when the Browns open the preseason on Friday night, Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot reported.
Sanders will get the chance to start under center with both Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel dealing with hamstring injuries. The Browns also don’t want 40-year-old Joe Flacco to play in the preseason, according to the report.
Sanders has not had any reps with the first team since training camp opened, and he’s only faced the first team defense for just four snaps — he completed 2 of 3 pass attempts — last week.
Tyler Huntley, whom the Browns signed on Tuesday, will come off the bench for the Browns during the preseason matchup, which will give Sanders his first chance to throw to receivers Jerry Jeudy, Cedric Tillman, Diontae Johnson and David Njoku.
Recently, the Browns released their unofficial depth chart and had listed Sanders fourth.
Flacco had been listed as the starting quarterback on the unofficial depth chart with Pickett listed as the backup and Gabriel as the third stringer.
Plenty of eyes have been on Sanders following a dramatic turn of events during the NFL draft earlier this year, where he had been expected to go in the first round, only to tumble to the fifth round after questions surrounding his attitude started to pop up leading up to the draft.
Sanders said earlier this week that he blocks out the noise about him because he’s figured out “how people come at you.”
“Life is a cycle, it keeps repeating over and over and over, then you understand what game this is or what they’re doing,” Sanders told reporters. “I can never feel less than. Nobody can ever make mentally get out of position in the situation I’m in. I’m thankful for who I am. I’m thankful for who my dad is. I’m thankful for my family and no one can make me feel bad for the blessing that I do have.”
Sanders and the Browns will take the field against Carolina on Friday at 7 p.m.
