Browns play cruel joke on Shedeur Sanders before preseason opener

The Cleveland Browns aren't setting fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders up for success before he makes his debut against the Carolina Panthers on Friday night. 

Amid hamstring injuries to Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel, the Browns are giving the start to Sanders, hoping to keep QB1 Joe Flacco healthy before the regular season.

However, the Browns aren't making Sanders' life easy before Friday's game. Per Zack Jackson of The Athletic, Sanders has yet to receive reps with the first-team offense in practice and has mostly worked with the third team in training camp.

"Through 10 days of camp, Sanders is the only one of the four Browns quarterbacks not to take snaps with the No. 1 offense," Jackson wrote. "He piloted the No. 2 offense in one drill last week against the Browns’ No. 1 defense, but the majority of his snaps in camp have come with and against the No. 3 units...

"Wednesday’s joint practice should provide some clarity on the Browns’ exact thinking and availability for Friday. Sanders likely won’t take No. 1 reps in the joint session, but he’ll have that practice and a Thursday walk-through to prepare further — and potentially get the chance to play the full game in the preseason opener."

Per Fred Greetham of 247 Sports, Sanders did not receive reps with the first-team offense during the joint practice on Wednesday, but did take part in four plays during an 11-on-11 period against the Panthers following Flacco's reps.

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski thinks Sanders has received enough reps from the second and third team units to be ready for Friday night, arguing that the only thing different about the players on the first team is the "batteries" they're built with.

"That's part of, I think it's just preseason ball, where you may have some ones going against twos," Stefanski said. "Two's going against one's. You could have, there's different guys in there at different times, but I think both sides, particularly in that first game, it's all about playing fast. 

"So you typically don't see a ton of looks that are unusual per se. So if you stick to your rules and you stick to what you've been taught over the last few weeks, you should be able to operate and function well."

Sanders is going into his first NFL game flying blind after the Browns played a cruel joke on him this week. 

Frankly, there is a considerable difference in throwing to the equipment staff and players signed as undrafted free agents versus the speed that a first-team offense in the league has. 

The Browns aren't giving Sanders a fair fight by allowing him to practice a few reps with the first team. It's now up to Sanders to quickly respond to the differences if he wants a chance to move up the depth chart.