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Shedeur Sanders to make 1st NFL start in Week 12 vs. Raiders

Meby: Nick Geddes11/19/25NickGeddesNews
Shedeur Sanders
Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced Wednesday that quarterback Shedeur Sanders will make his first career NFL start in Sunday’s Week 12 road contest against the Las Vegas Raiders. Fellow rookie signal caller Dillon Gabriel remains in concussion protocol and won’t practice Wednesday.

“Shedeur’s gonna start at quarterback,” Stefanski said. “Dillon’s still in concussion protocol, he is improving but obviously, we gotta put a plan together for all of our players, all of our offense or defense or special teams, a plan of attack and give our guys a chance to execute and go play fast.”

Gabriel suffered a concussion in the second quarter of this past Sunday’s 23-16 Week 11 home defeat to the Baltimore Ravens. That gave Sanders, the fifth-round selection out of Colorado, the chance to get his first reps in an NFL regular season game.

Shedeur Sanders underwhelms in NFL debut

Coming in off the bench, he completed just 4-of-16 passes for 47 yards and an interception. Sanders was sacked twice and finished with a 13.5 passer rating. The Browns had a 16-10 lead after two quarters of play but were shutout in the second half. The Ravens won 23-16, getting back to .500, while the Browns fell to 2-8.

“Playing a backup quarterback role, that’s tough to come in there,” Stefanski said after the game. “But we trust him. I know there are things that he’s going to want to better. But that’s why we work.”

Sanders will now get a full week of reps with the Cleveland’s first-string offense, something he didn’t get as the backup to Gabriel. While Sanders underwhelmed three days ago in relief of Gabriel, he’s hopeful more time to work with the offensive starters yields better results.

“I don’t think I played good at all. I think it’s a lot of things we need to look at during the week and go and just get comfortable,” Sanders said. “Even throwing routes with Jerry [Jeudy] and throwing routes with all those guys. So, I think that was my first ball to him all year. But other than that, I just think overall we just got to go next week and understand so then we have a week to prepare stuff I like to do.”