In case you needed more proof that the conversation around Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders is one of the most bizarre that we have ever seen in sports, maybe this next exhibit from Shannon Sharpe will finally convince you.
Shedeur Sanders has started the last three games for the Cleveland Browns after stepping in for an injured Dillon Gabriel. While he has shown flashes and won a game at the Las Vegas Raiders, he also lost a game at home to the worst team in the league in the Tennessee Titans. And he has the lowest completion percentage among any quarterback with more than one start this season.
After the game against the Titans, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said that the rookie from Colorado would start the team’s last four games of the season… which means four more weeks of insane, dizzying Shedeur Sanders dialogue.
In case you have missed out to this point, there have been all sorts of innuendo and implication that Stefanski and the Browns have been trying to sabotage Sanders, even from national analysts. That has continued even when he’s been in the starting lineup.
One of those voices was Shannon Sharpe himself.
On his Nightcap podcast, Shannon Sharpe appeared to take it one step further by suggesting that the Browns had it in for Sanders by naming him the QB for the team’s last four games against the Bears, Bills, Steelers, and Bengals respectively. And that by giving him such tough opponents, it would ensure that he would fail.
“I really hate to feel this way,” Sharpe said. “But a part of me is like, ‘Yea, we’ll let him start the rest of the season, oh Bears, Bills, Steelers, Bengals.’ If I was Shedeur, I’d be like, ‘Na, I’m good. I already showed you all what I can do. Put Dillon in there,'”
After Chad Johnson said he wanted Shedeur Sanders playing against that level of competition, Sharpe continued with his line of apparent skepticism.
“Ocho, this is not a mistake. They picked these games. Why couldn’t you name his a– the starter three games ago? Why was it week to week? You know what? Every time he doesn’t want to answer a question, he always says, ‘Well, I don’t want to get into that.'”
However, after the clip went viral, the Nightcap X feed posted a picture later on Tuesday suggesting that the comments from Shannon Sharpe were just sarcasm with a “tongue in cheek” reference.
https://t.co/6evm5bRp89 pic.twitter.com/FgaHbohIKR
— Nightcap (@NightcapShow_) December 9, 2025
Let’s be honest, nobody knows what the Cleveland Browns are doing at the quarterback position, especially with Deshaun Watson now waiting in the wings. The Browns themselves probably don’t even know. That’s why all the accusations of subterfuge and improprieties ever since training camp have been so weird, especially over a fifth round quarterback who hasn’t exactly set the league on fire with 5 TDs and 3 INTs while averaging 192 yards per game.
The drama around Sanders has been so unlike anything we have ever seen that truly any take is possible. At the very least, we can all rest easy that Shannon Sharpe really thinks that the Browns aren’t sabotaging Shedeur Sanders both by playing him and not playing him. At least for now.
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