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Shedeur Montana” Makes His Debut: Hype, Reality, and a Whole Lot of Whining
I’ve been waiting all season for one thing:
Not a Browns playoff run.
Not a Ravens collapse.
Just for Shedeur Sanders to finally get on the field so everybody could stop whining about when he was going to play.
Well, we got it.
And… yeah. About that.
The Characters in This Soap Opera
Let’s set the stage.
Shedeur Sanders – Backup QB, Brand CEO, Lightning Rod
Son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, star college quarterback, the guy who helped revive Colorado football and turned every Saturday into a reality show. He was hyped as a top-five pick and, depending on which talking head you listened to, maybe even a candidate to go No. 1 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. New York Post+1
Instead, he slid all the way to pick 144 in the 5th round, where the Cleveland Browns finally grabbed him—after they’d already drafted Dillon Gabriel in the 3rd. Reuters+1
Why the fall? Take your pick:
- Pre-draft buzz that he and his camp were a little too brand-first, football-second.
- The “LEGENDARY” backdrop at his draft party like it was a fashion drop instead of a job interview. People.com
- The viral lip-sync press conference when he didn’t win the starting job—literally miming answers to reporters after Gabriel was named QB1. The Guardian
On the field, I like Shedeur. Off the field? He’s so focused on image and money that sometimes it feels like football is just another content stream.
Dillon Gabriel – The Short King Starter
On the other side you’ve got Dillon Gabriel, 5’11″, lefty, and walking proof that you don’t have to be the most “talented” guy on paper to carve out a career. He had a monster college run at UCF, Oklahoma, and Oregon, setting FBS records for career touchdown passes, and he went in the 3rd round (94th overall) to Cleveland. Wikipedia
Gabriel took over the starting gig from Joe Flacco earlier this season and has been… fine. Not great, not totally hopeless. Coming into the Ravens game he had 850 yards, 6 TDs, 2 INTs in five starts, with a completion rate around 58%. New York Post+1
If we’re doing video game comps, Gabriel looks like Little Mac from Punch-Out!!—game as hell, but you’re always one bad matchup away from Bald Bull sending you into the shadow realm.
Kevin Stefanski – The Supposed QB Whisperer
Then there’s Kevin Stefanski, two-time NFL Coach of the Year and alleged offensive mastermind, stuck in purgatory with a revolving door of quarterbacks and a fanbase that wants all of them benched at the same time.
Every time the Browns offense struggles, it becomes:
- “Start Shedeur!”
- “Bench Gabriel!”
- “Trade for somebody else!”
- “Fire Stefanski while we’re at it!”
And this year, with two rookie QBs and a beat-up roster, the drama has basically turned into a soap opera filmed on frozen turf.
The Big Moment: Shedeur Finally Gets His Shot
So here we are: Browns vs. Ravens, Week 11. The Ravens are 5–5, Browns 2–8, classic AFC North stress ball of a game. Cleveland Browns+1
Cleveland actually went into halftime up 16–10, thanks mostly to the defense:
- Myles Garrett going full maniac with 4 sacks, giving him 15 on the season. Cleveland Browns
- Devin Bush with a pick-six off Lamar Jackson. Cleveland Browns
Offensively, Gabriel was… decent. Before the concussion, he:
- Completed 7 of 10 passes
- For 68 yards
- No TDs, no picks, just basic game-manager ball Cleveland Browns+1
Then he gets evaluated at halftime, ruled out with a concussion, and suddenly the Shedeur Super Fan Club gets their wish:
Shedeur Sanders jogs onto the field for his NFL regular-season debut. Reuters+1
The crowd in Cleveland?
Loud cheers. They wanted this.
The Reality Check: “Shedeur Montana” vs. the Box Score
Now let’s talk about what actually happened.
Shedeur’s final stat line vs. the Ravens:
- 4 completions on 16 attempts
- 47 passing yards
- 0 touchdowns
- 1 interception
- 1 lost fumble
- 2 sacks, -27 yards
- Passer rating: 13.5 Reuters+2Dawgs By Nature+2
The Browns offense with Shedeur under center?
- 0 points in the entire second half
- Only 64 yards of offense after halftime ESPN.com+1
Meanwhile, the Ravens chipped away and then pulled out a nasty little trick play they call “Hurricane”:
- Tight end Mark Andrews lined up in a tush-push look…
- Reverse pivoted and busted a 35-yard rushing TD to give Baltimore a 23–16 lead with 2:31 left. SB Nation+2Cleveland Browns+2
Game over. Browns lose 23–16. ESPN.com+1
And here’s where my sarcasm comes in:
The way people talk about Shedeur, you’d think Joe Montana got trapped in a fifth-round rookie contract.
So yeah, I’m calling him “Shedeur Montana”—not because he’s Joe, but because his fan club talks like he’s already a first-ballot Hall of Famer who’s being “held back” by 1) his team, 2) his coach, 3) the NFL, 4) society, and 5) Mercury in retrograde.
“They’re Setting Him Up to Fail!” …Are They?
All season I’ve been hearing:
- “The Browns are setting Shedeur up to fail.”
- “They hate him because he’s Deion’s son.”
- “They only hate him because he’s Black.”
- “They never wanted him, they just drafted him to stash him.”
Let’s slow this down.
Facts:
- The Browns are the only team that actually drafted him, after he slid out of all the glamorous landing spots he was “supposed” to go to. People.com+1
- He chose to sign there instead of pushing his way elsewhere. If this is a “set up,” it started with his and his camp’s decisions.
- He came in behind a fellow rookie (Gabriel) who, like it or not, has been getting all the starter reps in practice. Dawgs By Nature+1
Does Stefanski deserve criticism for the offense being a mess? Sure.
But Shedeur Super Fans talk like the Browns are legally required to hand him the job and a Pro Bowl supporting cast before we’re allowed to judge him at all.
The Double Standard in the Fan Narratives
Here’s what cracks me up.
From the Shedeur Montana fan club:
“Just give him a chance! Gabriel isn’t it! Start Shedeur and he’ll cook no matter what, he’s a first-round talent!”
Okay, cool. He got a half of football:
- With a lead.
- Against a Ravens defense that, to be fair, hasn’t been elite this year but still knows how to blitz a rookie into panic mode. SB Nation+1
- In a system built around Gabriel’s reps and timing, not his.
If you’re really that dude—this “disrespected franchise savior”—you shouldn’t need the 1989 49ers around you to hit more than 4 passes.
But immediately, the excuses start:
- “He didn’t get enough first-team reps this week!”
- “The Browns didn’t game plan for him!”
Cool. But then the Ravens can say:
- “We didn’t game plan for him either.”
- “We spent all week designing calls for Gabriel.”
You can’t have it both ways.
If reps are why he looked bad, then lack of prep is also why the Ravens didn’t make him look worse.
The Alternate Timeline: What If He’d Picked Baltimore?
Here’s the part that really stings for some of his fans:
It’s very possible Shedeur could have ended up in Baltimore instead, sitting behind Lamar Jackson in a stable, championship-pedigree organization. Lamar could’ve mentored him as a dual-threat guy; another backup could show him the pocket-passer angle. Instead, we get the Browns circus.
On top of that, remember Dan Lanning at Oregon? He once cooked Colorado in a pre-game speech saying they were “about clicks, not about wins.” Wikipedia
Tell me that doesn’t feel a little relevant now, when the off-field brand often feels louder than the on-field production.
Deion’s Role in the Drama
Let’s be real: some of this is on Deion too.
He publicly promised he wouldn’t let Shedeur go to a “bad situation” and talked about protecting his son’s career. That sounds great… until your son:
- Hosts a big draft-night setup expecting to go early,
- Slides to the 5th round,
- Still ends up on a team his camp supposedly didn’t want,
- And loses millions of dollars in the gap between where he was projected and where he went. People.com+1
Then, after all that, the same fans turn around and scream that the Browns are “ruining” him.
If it’s really a bad team with a dysfunctional front office, why are you mad at them and not at the people who chose that destination?
My Read on Shedeur’s First Real NFL Test
Here’s my honest take, with popcorn in hand:
- On the field:
He looked like a rookie thrown into the fire—rattled, forcing throws, holding the ball too long. The arm talent is there; the poise and timing were not. The Ravens hit him, confused him, and he never settled in. Reuters+1 - Off the field:
The brand, the bravado, the draft-night optics, the lip-sync pressers—he and his camp have invited a level of scrutiny most backups never deal with. When you present yourself like a star before you’ve done anything, people are going to hold your feet to the fire when you finally step onstage and trip. - Narrative-wise:
The “Shedeur Montana” hype machine needed a reality check. Sunday delivered one.
Do I think he’s trash? No.
Do I think he’s a sure-fire Hall of Famer being sabotaged? Also no.
Right now, he’s unproven—which is exactly what you’d expect from a 5th-round rookie who just played his first meaningful NFL snaps.
So… Will He Start Next Week?
This is important for your blog, so here’s the current info:
- Kevin Stefanski has already said:
- If Dillon Gabriel clears concussion protocol, Gabriel will start next week against the Las Vegas Raiders.
- If Gabriel doesn’t clear protocol, then Shedeur Sanders will start, and Bailey Zappe will likely be elevated as the backup. Dawgs By Nature+1
So Shedeur is still the backup if Gabriel is healthy. Sunday didn’t win him the job—it just gave everyone something new to argue about.
Where Does “Shedeur Montana” Go From Here?
For Shedeur to flip this narrative, he doesn’t need:
- Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Roger Craig, Tom Rathman, and Bill Walsh resurrected from the football heavens…
He needs:
- Real practice reps with the starters
- A game plan built around what he does well
- A little humility to match the opportunity he’s been given
- And then… to actually play better than 4-for-16.
I honestly hope he figures it out. He’s talented. He’s marketable. He’s in a league that loves a redemption arc.
But until he does, I’m going to keep my popcorn ready and keep calling him Shedeur Montana—because his fanbase already talks like he’s 4-0 in Super Bowls.
Your Turn: What Is He Going to Be?
So here’s the question I’ll leave my readers (and you) with:
After that debut, do you think Shedeur Sanders is going to be an average, good, bad, or great NFL quarterback?
Drop your take in the comments, Shedeur radicals and Shedeur skeptics alike.
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