LeBron James sends message to Shedeur Sanders’ doubters after his preseason debut

Shedeur Sanders left a lot of people impressed during his NFL preseason debut, including NBA superstar LeBron James.

The Cleveland Browns deployed Sanders as the team’s starting quarterback in their preseason opener on Friday against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. The 23-year-old did not waste the opportunity.

Sanders threw for 138 yards with two touchdowns in a definitive 30-10 win over the Panthers. He threw his first touchdown to open the second quarter — a pinpoint 7-yard pass to Kaden Davis to get the Browns on the board. Fans even got to see Sanders’ signature TD celebration.

James, an Ohio native, sang Sanders’ praises throughout the game. He had some words of encouragement for the rookie QB during the game itself, telling him to “keep going up.”

The Los Angeles Lakers star then turned his attention to those claiming Shedeur’s successful stint was irrelevant since preseason games don’t count (profanity edited by LBS).

“And I don’t wanna hear that ‘It’s only preseason’ bs [sic],” wrote James on X. “Cause if he was out there not going in y’all would be on his a– about it! So give credit and grace lames.”

While it’s hard to take away too much from a preseason game, James does have a point. Sanders would have likely received the meme treatment had he failed to perform against preseason-level competition.

Sanders was not playing without pressure. There were rumblings earlier this week about Shedeur potentially getting cut by the Browns. Those whispers were quieted with the performance he put on against the Panthers.

But given Sanders’ place in the Browns’ QB depth chart, he still has a ways to go before he gets meaningful action once the games start to count.