Second thoughts: Shedeur Sanders’ first win left us wanting to see more, including Kevin Stefanski

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.

Second thoughts on Browns 24, Raiders 10 …

1. The reason Kevin Stefanski declines to name his starting quarterback when there is doubt is because he never will break the news publicly before delivering it privately to those involved. Stefanski met with Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel on Monday and told them his plans to keep Sanders as the starter for the 49ers game on Sunday. Thus, the coach didn’t hesitate in announcing the organization’s decision in opening remarks on his weekly Monday Zoom meeting with media before the question was asked. It’s also why Stefanski didn’t want to commit beyond the next game even though Gabriel has cleared concussion protocol and will return to full practice on Wednesday. “I’m just going to focus on this week,” Stefanski said. By the way, no Browns rookie quarterback has gone 2-0 in his first two NFL starts. Hall of Famer Otto Graham went 2-0 to begin his career in the All-America Football Conference in 1946 and nobody else has done it since the Browns joined the NFL in 1950.

2. Sanders infused the team – and fan base -- with energy with his ability to connect on deep passes to Isaiah Bond and Jerry Jeudy, showed great composure in avoiding sacks for drive-killing losses (only took one), eliminated his habit of drifting backwards in the face of pressure, and limited his negative plays (only one interception). But the main reason he earned another start was that he came home from Vegas a winner. “Obviously, the Number One job of the quarterback is to win. So, excited to get that first win under his belt,” Stefanski said. “And then the next thing is improvement, and that’s what young players do, certainly young quarterbacks do. You get one game better and that’s from working at it. And that will be our focus.” The excitement generated by Sanders’ victorious debut also made it fair to both quarterbacks that Sanders start the next game in Huntington Bank Field. Putting Gabriel back in would have subjected him to unnecessary and unfair booing from the legion of Sanders fans. Gabriel doesn’t deserve that.

3. Other than the win, what did Stefanski like about Sanders’ performance? He was 11 of 20 for 209 yards with one TD and one interception for a passer rating of 85.7. Dylan Sampson’s catch-and-run accounted for 66 of the passing yards. “Obviously, first start for any young quarterback, you’re always going to make sure the operation is how you want it, and I thought by and large [it] was good,” Stefanski said. “There’s things that we can clean up and obviously that goes on all of us. That’s coaches, that’s the players, the quarterback, where we can clean up some of our operation. But I thought communication was really good throughout the day with him. And then … the big plays down the field. That first one to [Bond] was very high degree of difficulty with that play. Are there things that he can do better? Absolutely. We’ve already talked about that with him. He has the mentality that he will make the adjustments to the speed of the game, make the adjustments to what people are giving us, to make those improvements.” Raiders coach Pete Carroll, by the way, called the 52-yard strike to Bond in the first quarter “the play of the game … that was an extraordinary ball that he threw on that one. And that was really the one that, I think, was that was kind of the dagger in the ball game, as it turned out, that was what changed things.” Yes, amazing how a 14-0 lead can open up things for the defense and offense.

4. Jeudy’s one reception was marred by a fumble as he hesitated during his run after the catch, which allowed safety Jeremy Chinn to rip the ball out from behind. :I think he was setting the player in front of him up to make a move there,” Stefanski said. “He will be better. That’s really a play that we expect him to make. That’s a huge play for our football team. We were about to get seven points, if not three on that drive, and that’s a big play for us, and Jerry knows this. And we remind him and remind our players: it’s always the guy that you can’t see that they’re coming. So, I don’t think it was a loaf. It was a lack of ball security technique.” Jeudy also watched the ball hit the ground in front of him on his only other two targets. That sub-par performance came after Jeudy was uncharacteristically curt with responses at the locker room podium on Wednesday. So Stefanski was asked if he knows if there’s something in particular bugging Jeudy. “No, I think Jerry’s got the right attitude,” he said. “He wants to win. Obviously, when you’re not winning, that certainly can affect your mood, if you can imagine, but he’s focused on winning.” Until this past week, Jeudy has done a good job of not letting frustration get in the way of his play.

5. I’ve used the phrase “sophisticated tanking” to describe the Browns’ youth movement this year. No NFL team realistically can expect to win a lot of games with such an influx of rookies; the Browns have 14 on their roster. But when they perform as the Browns’ first-year players have done throughout the year, you’re accomplishing something important by developing them, no matter the W-L record. In Las Vegas, the Browns got significant contributions from Sanders, Quinshon Judkins (two TDs), Sampson (one TD and a 26-yard run to set up a field goal), Bond, Harold Fannin (four catches, including bullish YAC for first downs with two of them), Carson Schwesinger (team-high 10 tackles, one TFL), Mason Graham (constant pressure on Geno Smith, one TFL and one pass batted at the line of scrimmage), and Gage Larvadain (44-yard punt return to set up the first TD). “It’s fun for me as a coach to see the development of these young men with their coaches and how much work they’re putting into it, and then to be able to see that work and see the fruits of the labor, so to speak, on Sunday is a testament to what these guys are doing in this building throughout the season,” Stefanski said.

6. The Browns can devote almost a daily update on Myles Garrett’s assault on the sack record book. The latest update: His 18 sacks already are a franchise season record and are the most for any player through 11 games. His 14 over the past five games are the most ever. And his 120.5 sacks in his career are the most of any NFL player under the age of 30, shattering Mark Gastineau’s second-place 108. “My guys are helping me elevate me to another level,” Garrett said after the game. “I couldn't do it without them. They're winning rushes, they're getting pressure from the middle, keeping them from stepping up, they're winning on the edge and keep it contained, and they're making my job a lot easier. So, there's no way I'd be able to get to this point and excel at this level without everything that they're doing. Like I said, I'm very proud of them."