No, Shedeur Sanders is not Him, yet

Psst, hey you, yeah, I’m talking to you. Did you hear that the second coming of Tom Brady has arrived in the NFL and his name is Shedeur Sanders, in case you didn’t know that already.

Sanders finally made his NFL debut last week against the Ravens when the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, got knocked out with a concussion.

Sanders went 4-for-16 for 47 yards and a touchdown in a 23-16 loss in that game.

But his fanbase — let’s go ahead and call them the “Shedeur Simps”, shall we? – were licking their chops on Sunday. Sanders would be making his first NFL start.

He would show the world how wrong everyone was on draft day when he plummeted from a potential Top 5 pick to being a fifth round selection.

Sanders rolled out on Sunday with this stat line: 11-for-20 for 209 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and was sacked once.

Bigger news was, the Browns won the game 24-10. Impressive stuff, no?

No, it really wasn’t.

Drilling Down Sanders’ Numbers

First off, the opponent was the Las Vegas Raiders. If this team isn’t deliberately tanking, then the entire organization needs to be banned from the NFL.

I’m convinced the Odessa Permian Panthers could beat the Raiders.

And that is with the Panthers spotting the Raiders a touchdown before the opening kickoff.

But let’s focus on Sanders’ numbers. He had three passes over 20 yards.

His 52-yard pass to Isaiah Bond was underthrown.

Bond was wide open and behind the defense.

An accurate ball and Bond scores. It was a nice throw on the run, but a throw every NFL quarterback is able to make.

He had a nice 39-yard pass to Jerry Jeudy, who promptly fumbled the ball away.

But most of the Sanders’ fanbase points to his 66-yard touchdown pass as proof of Sanders’ “greatness”.

Except Sanders threw the pass to running back Dylan Sampson several yards behind the line of scrimmage. Sampson, his downfield blocking, and the Raiders’ porous defense, made that touchdown happen.

There wasn’t anything special that Sanders did to directly lead to the score.

That’s 157 yards on three passes, with over 70 coming after the catch. Which means Sanders was 8-of-17 for 52 yards for the rest of the game.

He had one interception on a poorly thrown pass. He should have had at least one more.

He’ll see a real NFL defense on Sunday when the Browns host the 49ers on Sunday.

I suspect we’ll see Gabriel in this game after halftime. It should also be the end of the calls to start Sanders for the rest of the year.

Worse Than The Dak Defenders?

The “Shedeur Simps” are giving the “Dak Defenders” a run for their money on the worst fanbase for a single player.

At least Dak Prescott has the regular season numbers to justify the loyalty from his fanbase.

Prescott is starting to take over several Cowboys’ franchise passing records. In the regular season.

The only legitimate knock against Prescott is his occasional tendency to force passes into coverage when more favorable open options were available.

Then there is his 2-5 playoff record.

And his two first-half interceptions, against San Francisco in 2022, and Green Bay in 2023, which were converted into a total of 20 combined points in the two losses.

He has the tools and the ability to rewrite that narrative still.

However, his fanbase will tolerate no negative comments against him. Whenever he throws an interception, the immediate response is that “it wasn’t Dak’s fault!” even when it clearly is.

Jerry Jones is the obvious king of the Dak Defenders. Until Prescott pushes through to at least an NFC Championship game, his spot on the Cowboys’ roster should be in jeopardy.

But Jones will never make the call to move on from Prescott because he’d have to admit he screwed up and extended Prescott just before the 2024 season.

And The Worst Fanbase is…

Because of its longevity, especially in the face of Prescott’s postseason mark of 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the Divisional round, the Dak Defenders are worse.

But just one week into Sanders’ run as a starter, and it looks like the Shedeur Simps are going to give the Dak Defenders a good run for their money.

If the 49ers run Sanders off the field on Sunday, as expected, the Browns should put themselves out of their misery, and put Gabriel back as the starter.

Then try to draft a real starting quarterback in April.