The Browns are striving to make Shedeur Sanders comfortable with the game plan for his first NFL start. (Cleveland Browns)
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Editor’s note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said his goal in preparing Shedeur Sanders for his first NFL start is to make him as comfortable as possible.
“You want to make your quarterback comfortable,” Rees said. “You want to call plays, you want to put in plays that breathe confidence into them as they hear them, as they call them, plays that they know they can make work.
“And then you press the guys around them to raise their level of play and play well, to continue to breathe confidence in the young players and in the young quarterbacks. So, that’s really been the motivation this week moving forward.”
Now, what if Sanders is comfortable going off script and off structure? What if he’s uncomfortable playing within the structure Rees sets up?
There’s no question Dillon Gabriel and Sanders are polar opposites – from their personalities, their deliveries of the ball (one’s lefty, one’s righty), and their style of quarterbacking (one favors conservative checkdowns, the other likes to wing it downfield).
“A coach a long time ago told me, ‘When you play the quarterback position, there’s an art and the science,” Rees said. “You can’t be full-time artist, you can’t be ful- time scientist. The great ones kind of have that blend of, when is it time to play on script, and when is it time to play within the system, and then when is the time to let your instinct take over? I think with all quarterbacks, you try to find that right blend, right?
“I don’t think you can play this game completely by the book and I don’t think you can play this game completely like a cowboy. Got to have the blend of both – and that’s something we try to instill in our guys.”
Guard Joel Bitonio acknowledged the differences in the rookie quarterbacks and said, “It’ll be interesting once we get into actually full-game flow with Shedeur to see how that plays out. Dillon’s very calm in the huddle and sometimes Shedeur let’s his emotions go, which can be good and bad.”
Change is good. What Gabriel was doing wasn’t working well enough. Time for Sanders to do his thing.
Quarterbacks beware
Myles Garrett leads the NFL with 15 sacks and 22 tackles-for-loss. The TFLs equal his league-high total of last season in seven fewer games. Garrett is on pace for 25.5 sacks, which would shatter the league record of 22.5 held by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.
Here’s the scary thing for opposing QBs on the Browns’ schedule.
“He’s got a lot more to give,” said defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.
“Because we got a lot more games to play, and there’s a lot more great things he can do for us. So that’s sort of where I am with it. We don’t need to post-mortem for the season before the final chapter’s been written, and he’s got a lot of chapters to write.”
A life-changer
Defensive end Alex Wright is still hobbled by a quad injury, but he had reason to celebrate on Thursday when he and the Browns finalized a three-year contract extension for $33 million. The deal reportedly includes $21 million in guaranteed money.
Wright said he cried when he completed the deal because he recalled his late grandfather telling him when he was drafted, “You gonna make the big bucks.”
“It’s life-changing,” Wright said. “I’m still in disbelief right now.”
After his 2024 season was derailed by a torn triceps, Wright rebounded to have his best season in four with the Browns. He’s second on the defense with three sacks and second with nine TFLs.
He recalled Schwartz telling him when he arrived in 2023, “I’m going to make you a star.”
Wright, 25, might have been able to attract a bigger contract in free agency after the 2025 season.
“I don’t want to go through free agency,” he said. “I want to stay here because of the defense we have. I grew up here. I don’t want to play with nobody else. Also, this defense is made for me, and that’s something me and Coach Schwartz talked about when we first got here.”
Wright was a third-round pick in 2022. He is the third draft pick of the 44 made by GM Andrew Berry in six years to earn a second contract. The others are safety Grant Delpit and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.
Brownie bits
The kudos continued for linebacker Carson Schwesinger, who was named AFC defensive rookie of the week. Against the Ravens, Schwesinger led the team with 10 tackles, notched his second interception of the year, and had two TFLs. Schwesinger is the favorite to win defensive rookie of the year. Safety Grant Delpit said he should be named All-Pro in his first season. Schwartz said, “I was with Ray Lewis his first three years in the NFL. Ray’s obviously a Hall of Famer, maybe the best ever to play the linebacker position, but the command that Carson has now in a lot of respects took Ray’s third year in the league before [he had the same command of the position].” Schwesinger takes all the accolades in stride. “It’s cool to see, but it’s very easy to get caught up in things like that when really the focus is how do we go out there and win this week?” Schwesinger said. …
Besides Gabriel (concussion) and Wright (quad), other DNPs were tight end David Njoku (knee) and receiver Jamari Thrash (foot). Offensive tackles Cam Robinson (knee) and Jack Conklin (knee) were limited a second day in a row.