EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Shedeur Sanders’ NFL debut for the Cleveland Browns will wait for at least another week.
After rookie Dillon Gabriel and the Browns struggled in a 27-20 loss to the New York Jets on Sunday, coach Kevin Stefanski said he’s not making a quarterback change ahead of Cleveland’s game against Baltimore next week.
“We’re going to stick with Dillon,” Stefanski said. “This is a young player, and you’re always trying to get one game better and those types of things. We have to play better as an offense.”
Gabriel, a third-round pick out of Oregon in April, dropped to 1-4 as Cleveland’s starter since taking over for Joe Flacco. He was 17 of 32 for 167 yards and two touchdowns but was sacked six times. He also ran for 54 yards on five carries, with most of that yardage coming late as the Jets were up by 10 and trying to prevent deep plays.
“In certain moments, we didn’t execute and that starts with me,” Gabriel said. “It’s always frustrating when it’s not going the way you want it to. In crucial moments, you have to execute and we didn’t.”
The Browns finished with 278 yards of total offense in the first game since Stefanski turned over the play-calling to offensive coordinator Tommy Rees in hopes that it would provide a jolt to the offense.
“Like I told you guys, I have total trust in Tommy,” Stefanski said. “Obviously, we fell short as a team. We’ll just continue to try and find ways to put our guys in position.”
But the continued struggles have some wondering if it might be time to turn to Sanders, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders who fell to the fifth round this year after being considered at one time a possible top pick.
Sanders has yet to make his regular-season debut but was recently promoted to the Browns’ No. 2 quarterback behind Dillon.
“When things aren’t going well, there is always going to be change because to keep doing the same thing and don’t change anything is insanity,” Gabriel said. “I feel like at times there are things that went well, that we sustained and executed.”
