Kevin Stefanski praises Shedeur Sanders at latest press conference

The quarterback controversy in Cleveland has been no secret, and now, with Dillon Gabriel in his sixth game starting for the Browns, many fans are ready for a change. Gabriel is now 1-4 as the starter so far after the recent loss to the Jets, where he threw for 167 yards, two touchdowns, and rushed for a career-high 54 yards. 

The main factor in the loss came from the Jets returning a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown in the 27-20 loss for Cleveland. Browns fans have had enough, though, calling for Kevin Stefanski’s job and for Shedeur Sanders to start at quarterback. 

There has also been a notion that Stefanski dislikes Shedeur or that he is not giving him a fair chance early on in his career. Stefanski proved those rumors wrong today when he talked about Shedeur, though. 

"He’s doing a really nice job, including just now coming off the field with the red zone drill that we did, so continues to work very hard, doing a nice job in meetings, doing a good job," Stefanski said after practice.

Stefanski also detailed how he has changed his coaching style and how the team practices based on the rookies that they have, specifically the two in the quarterback room. 

“Because you have so many rookies, you have two rookie quarterbacks, you’re trying to maximize every minute you have out there. We’ve done individual periods on Mondays and Saturdays, which we haven’t done before, for players that didn’t play in the game.”

The situation of having two rookie quarterbacks in the same room is not very common; many can remember when Washington drafted Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins in the same draft class in 2012.

 The Browns became just the 11th team since 1994, when the NFL shortened the draft to seven rounds, to draft multiple quarterbacks in the same class.

The other ten instances were with the common theme of drafting one quarterback much higher than the other, and only certain ones where the latter drafted quarterback went on to have a better career. Cousins in 2012, Matt Flynn in 2008, and Tim Rattay in 200 seemed to be those outliers. 

The problem with Cleveland’s was the fact that Gabriel and Sanders were drafted just 50 picks apart, which did not set the precedent for one to start immediately. The other tough part was the fact that Sanders was projected very much higher than Gabriel, and then the fifth round in which he was drafted. 

The situation is a bit of unexplored waters for most teams or head coaches, but it seems Sanders is doing a great job day in and day out of putting in the work.