Browns rookies giveth all season, and they will taketh over the long haul, too

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.

Maybe everyone needed a game like this to fully understand what’s ahead in the rebuilding process for the Browns.

There is no franchise quarterback on the present roster and even if the Browns are clever enough to evaluate and acquire one in the offseason, the problems submarining this 2025 season extend way beyond quarterback.

Shedeur Sanders learned what it’s really like to quarterback this team this season. Special teams blunders and offensive line inadequacies sabotaged another game, turning a brief, 8-7 Browns lead into a 26-8 rout by the San Francisco 49ers.

Like fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel before him, Sanders certainly wasn’t the cause for the loss, the Browns’ ninth in 12 games this year, assuring their 23^rd losing season in 27 years of the expansion era.

But also like Gabriel, Sanders couldn’t make the plays to rally his team beyond the miscues of others. On a windy day, Sanders missed potential long TDs by overthrowing Jerry Jeudy on his first series and underthrowing Isaiah Bond on his next-to-last series. You can blame those misfires on lack of play time and the 26 mph wind gusts throughout the cold, dry afternoon. In any case, first-year quarterbacks have to experience games like this before they can win them.

In between, Sanders didn’t commit a turnover, which is commendable, but, like Gabriel’s time in six starts, it just wasn’t good enough to make up a deficit against a good San Francisco team and overcome a plethora of bad plays by others.

“It’s about rallying the guys, and I didn’t do a great job of that today,” Sanders said. “Rallying everybody together whenever things aren’t going our way and staying focused and staying on it. Even when I shoot my shot and I miss, I just got to keep shooting and I got to keep …  bringing everybody together. ‘Cause I know the offense, I know the team counts on me to do my job and do what I got to do. And I feel like I failed them today.”

There probably isn’t a rookie quarterback who ever existed who could rescue a team so determined to beat itself.

The 49ers scored touchdowns on a 16-yard drive as a result of a 66-yard punt return given up by the Browns; on a 32-yard drive as a result of a Harold Fannin lost fumble on a fourth-and-1 QB sneak; and on an 18-yard drive as a result of a Gage Larvadain fumbled punt.

The Browns have gotten some tremendous performances from rookies all season. In the long run, though, these things balance out for rookies; it was just Fannin’s and Larvadain’s turn to have a bad day.

(One Browns rookie who continued his outstanding play was linebacker Carson Schwesinger. Consigned, essentially, to shadowing running back Christian McCaffrey all over the field, Schwesinger helped to hold the NFL’s total yards leader to 53 rushing yards on 20 carries and four catches for 21 yards. McCaffrey scored San Francisco’s first TD on a 1-yard run. Schwesinger again led the Browns with 10 tackles, including one for loss and one quarterback hit.)

The Fannin fumble was the game’s turning point.

The Browns trailed, 10-8, midway through the third quarter when they faced fourth-and-1 from their own 33-yard line. Coach Kevin Stefanski green-lighted a fourth-down gamble by play-caller Tommy Rees. Presumably, everybody approved of the aggressive decision rather than punt.

The Browns loaded up in a jumbo formation amid confusion. Wyatt Teller, who had been demoted to a rotation with Teven Jenkins because of, he said, poor play, came running onto the field for the fourth-down play. But instead of reporting to the referee as the eligible lineman, Teller went to his usual right guard spot and Jenkins had to remove himself as the right guard and report as the eligible lineman. On top of everything, the Browns were trying to execute the play on a quick count to catch the 49ers flat-footed.

What happened was Fannin lost the snap and the 49ers recovered the ball.

“Felt good about the call,” Stefanski said. “You know, there’s always the obvious risk when you go for it in those situations, but if you feel good about the plays you have and your players, you feel good about converting on those distances.”

Teller said, “I feel like we ran that play 100 times this season, and not in games but practiced it, and it just sucks. It's just a cool game, slipped through the hands, and it's just those little things, right? And until you're gonna handle those little things like the relationship between the quarterback and the center, or tight end, whatever, it's hard to get the big stuff.”

Many would ask, “Why not just hand the ball off to Quinshon Judkins?” Well, they tried that on fourth-and-1 from the 49ers’ 20 in the first quarter, and Judkins was tackled for a 1-yard loss by ex-Browns tackle Jordan Elliott.

So those two fourth-down failures contributed to the Browns’ dismal overall showing of 3 for 15 on third- and fourth-down plays.

Meanwhile, the 49ers were 11 of 17 on third downs, which speaks to the deceptively great game played by quarterback Brock Purdy.

Purdy’s passing numbers (16 of 29, 168 yards, 1 TD, 83.7 rating, and a 2-yard TD on a naked bootleg) were similar to Sanders’ (16 of 25, 149, 1 TD, 93.6 rating), but he made every play he had to make and effectively kept Myles Garrett from wrecking his game. Garrett managed one sack to improve his season total to 19 – just 3.5 from the NFL single-season record.

“I feel like there were a lot of opps [for sacks],” Garrett said. “But he likes getting out on time or he sees me and, credit to him, he also avoided the rush pretty well, too. So him getting the ball out on time, them having a solid unit as well, chipping, those kind of things. They were doing what they do best.”

And the Browns did what they do best. Or, worst.