Josina Anderson vigorously defends Shedeur Sanders after disappointing NFL debut

Shedeur Sanders made his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad debut for the Cleveland Browns Sunday afternoon, but according to one NFL insider, it wasn’t all his fault.

After months of speculation over when Sanders would see his first NFL action, it happened Sunday afternoon when Browns rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel was forced to exit the game with a concussion. Sanders was handed a lead against the Baltimore Ravens, but his 4-of-16 passing for 47 yards, one interception and a fumble wasn’t enough for Cleveland to hang on, as it ended up losing 23-16.

While the stats speak for themselves, NFL insider Josina Anderson was trying to tell a very different story about Sanders’ debut, repeatedly noting the rookie quarterback’s lack of first-team reps while defending his poor play.

Shedeur Sanders with hardly any first-team reps this season, throws a pick.

— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) November 16, 2025

Let’s be clear: This is not an intentional Shedeur Sanders “debut” coached-up with any 1st-team reps all season from Kevin Stefanski.

Sanders is playing by default only, due to a Dillon Gabriel concussion! https://t.co/e6kLuUZYid

— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) November 17, 2025

Here’s a look at this no-first-team reps 25y chunk completion by Shedeur Sanders. #Browns pic.twitter.com/CESBbg1HvV

— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) November 17, 2025

Here was the against-all-odds 3/10 completion by Shedeur Sanders under 2 min. #Browns pic.twitter.com/fFBRusa8Em

— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) November 17, 2025

Anderson may have been able to make one of those posts without fans noticing the slanted coverage. But repeatedly finding ways to defend Sanders as the game was crumbling around him eventually became too much.

“Shedeur Sanders with hardly any first-team reps this season, throws a pick,” Anderson wrote after the quarterback’s interception.

But the post that received the most attention from Anderson, came when she described his third and 10 completion late in the fourth quarter as an “against-all-odds” play. Anderson was seemingly defining it as “against-all-odds” because Sanders entered the game with no first-team reps. In reality, the play went against-all-odds because Sanders was having an awful game and threw the pass about eight yards short of the first down marker only to be bailed out by wide receiver Jerry Jeudy.

Sanders was brutal in his unplanned debut. Sure, the rookie quarterback wasn’t put in the best position to succeed, but that shouldn’t overshadow how bad he was.

This doesn’t have to be a career-defining game for Sanders. He’ll eventually get first-team reps and another opportunity to prove he deserves to be a starter. But the story Sunday afternoon was Sanders went 4-of-16 for 47 yards in the loss to Baltimore, not the fact that a quarterback who was a third-stringer for most of the season wasn’t given any first-team reps in practice.