During Wednesday’s OTAs, the performances of the Browns quarterbacks were closely monitored, and a surprising fifth-round draft pick stood out with impressive statistics.
According to a graphic shared on X by ESPN Cleveland, Shedeur Sanders seemed to dominate the session with a sharp performance, completing 7 out of 9 passes and leading with three touchdowns.
But Sanders’ numbers lacked crucial context: he did not participate in any 11-on-11 drills.
However, it’s important to note that Sanders participated only in the 7-on-7 drills. The 11-on-11 exercises were shared among Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and 2025 draft peer Dillon Gabriel.
On Thursday’s episode of the “Orange and Brown Talk” podcast, hosts Dan Labbe, Mary Kay Cabot and Ashley Bastock discussed the misrepresentation of the OTAs stats.
“Shedeur Sanders, as we so aptly told everybody yesterday, did not take one rep in 11-on-11s,” Cabot said. “He has to come in here as the fourth-string quarterback and work his way up that depth chart. So, he did not take a team rep. He did not have Mason Graham in his face yesterday at all.”
Sanders, and any other quarterback, will have a better performance without a defensive line putting any pressure on him in a 7-on-7 setting.
“There’s just no real context to those numbers either in that graphic,” Bastock added. “Basically what you’re saying, one guy, Shedeur, was not in 11-on-11s at all. The other guy’s numbers, I would assume, but I don’t know for sure, include their 11-on-11 numbers.”
The crew emphasized the importance of this context, as social media was a bit set ablaze upon seeing Sanders one-up the rest of the Cleveland quarterback room by such a wide margin.
“The thing took on a life of its own,” Labbe said. “Everybody’s picking up on this and everybody’s talking about it and it’s showing up on national TV shows and people were seeing major media outlets tweet it and put it on their socials and all of that.”
While it’s true that all drills aren’t created equally, Sanders did go out and do what he needed to Wednesday — whether the stats are a bit misleading or not.
“This is the celebrity, this is the world of Shedeur Sanders,” Labbe said. “He didn’t do anything wrong. He just showed up and practiced. But the rest of the world has run with these OTA stats.”
