6 days ago
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Shedeur Sanders finally made his long-awaited NFL debut on Sunday night, after checking into the Cleveland Browns' game against the Baltimore Ravens.
Following a head injury to starting signal-caller Dillon Gabriel in the third quarter, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski called upon Sanders to step into the game.
The 23-year-old was met with loud cheers from fans inside Huntington Bank Field, footage showed, as he ran to midfield and prepared for his very first NFL snap.
Reports even claimed that the Browns offense had to shush the crowd as they prepared for Sanders' first competitive play as a Cleveland player.
However, it was a rough introduction to the league for Sanders, who was sacked by Ravens star Kyle Hamilton on a fourth down, leaving the Browns to punt.
To make matters worse, Hamilton performed Sanders' own celebration after the sack, while the Browns rookie got back to his feet.
Shedeur Sanders made his long-awaited debut for the Cleveland Browns on Sunday night
Ravens star Kyle Hamilton sacked Sanders just moments after the rookie entered the field
Huntington Bank Field erupted into loud cheers as Sanders made his way onto the field
Overall, in his first three drives at QB, Sanders completed two of his five passes for 15 yards, threw one interception and was sacked twice for 27 yards.
The son of NFL legend Deion Sanders was selected by the Browns after an embarrassing slide to the fifth round of this year's draft.
However, after joining, he found himself at the bottom of the pecking order amid the stacked quarterback depth that the Browns had at the start of the season.
Cleveland began the season with five total quarterbacks: Flacco, Gabriel, and Sanders - as well as Kenny Pickett and Deshaun Watson.
But Watson's recovery from a torn Achilles has been complicated - leaving his status for the rest of the season up in the air.
Pickett was cut from the roster before the season began and Flacco was benched after four lackluster starts.
It left Gabriel to take over from Flacco but, following his injury on Sunday night, it now opens the door for Sanders to show his quality for the Browns.
In his first three drives, Sanders completed two of five passes for 15 yards, threw one interception and was sacked twice
Sanders faced a long wait to get his first taste of NFL action which came against the Ravens
Gabriel had been evaluated for a concussion after coming off before it was later confirmed that he had been ruled out for the remainder of the game.
Before the injury, Gabriel had completed seven of his 10 passes for 68 yards and was sacked once for seven yards.
Meanwhile, after joining the Browns, Sanders impressed during his preseason debut as he tossed two touchdowns and completed 14 of 23 passes against the Panthers.
However, he was ultimately unable to reproduce his heroics over the following two weeks, as he missed his team's second preseason game with an oblique injury and took five sacks against the Rams in the next.
