CHICAGO — Shedeur Sanders followed up the best game of his young NFL career with the worst, but Kevin Stefanski is focused on the overall development of his rookie quarterback.
“There’s going to be ups and downs to young players, in particular at the quarterback position,” Stefanski said after a 31-3 loss to the Bears at Soldier Field. “So we’ll learn from it and be better next week.”
When Sanders threw for 364 yards and three touchdowns last week in a loss to the Titans, Stefanski said he was his starting quarterback for the rest of this season. He threw for three interceptions Sunday — as many as he’d totaled in 103 passes coming in — but Stefanski said he’ll remain Cleveland’s starter the rest of the way.
Asked if that reassurance helps him, Sanders said he plays with the same urgency to do well, just the same.
“Do you know what league we’re in?” he asked. “You can lose your job at any point and time. So you don’t play with fear. If you live and play in fear, you’ll never be yourself. So I don’t … whatever happens, it happens.”
The Browns have two first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. Will they use one on a quarterback? (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
After facing the worst defense in the league last week in the one-win Titans, Sanders went up against a Bears defense that leads the NFL with 27 takeaways. With a kickoff temperature of 8 degrees, Cleveland struggled to move the ball in the first half, totaling 57 yards of offense, with 42 coming on one downfield pass to receiver Isaiah Bond.
Even with that, the Browns were only down 14-3 in the third quarter when Bears linebacker D’Marco Jackson made a leaping interception, setting up a 22-yard touchdown on the next play. The next drive ended with another interception, though it wasn’t Sanders’ fault, with Bears corner Jaylon Johnson pulling the ball away from receiver Jerry Jeudy in the end zone.
Sanders added one more interception in the fourth quarter, and he finished the day 18-for-35 for 177 yards, with a passer rating of 30.3 — out of 400-plus games with 15 or more passes this season, Sanders now has two of the five worst of the year.
“The main thing is decompress, chill and be able to learn from it,” Sanders said after the loss.
Sanders has had a long year, going from a prospect some projected as a high first-round pick to falling all the way to the fifth round. He started the season as the Browns’ No. 3 quarterback, still the backup behind Dillon Gabriel after Joe Flacco was traded to the Bengals. He’s a month into life as a starting quarterback, dealing with a depleted offensive line and limited weapons around him.
Cleveland is now 3-11, and Sunday’s loss was their most lopsided in a regular-season game in four years. Sanders’ completion percentage for the season is just 52%, the lowest out of 44 quarterbacks with at least 100 passes. Stefanski was careful not to be overly critical of Sanders, saying it would be “incomplete” to say much without looking closely at game tape.
“I know there’s things that we can do better, and I know there’s things he can do better, so we’ll look at that,” he said.
Sanders was sacked five times and intercepted three times against the Bears. (Photo by Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Browns have three games left and will do well to avoid matching last year’s 3-14 record — they have home games against the Bills and Steelers, both battling for playoff spots, then finish the year in Cincinnati. Veteran pass-rusher Myles Garrett, who had 1.5 sacks on Sunday to give him 22 for the season, said his message to the young players on the roster is to keep playing at full intensity every week.
“You have to build a stable foundation with the young guys, showing them it doesn’t matter what the record is or what the score is,” Garrett said. “There’s still time on the clock, for the season, and for life. Don’t shy away from obstacles or struggle. That’s going to be there. The test of a man is really who you are when those come.”
Sanders is 1-3 as a starter, and this is the first time he has more interceptions than touchdowns for the season. He has three games left with a struggling franchise, trying to show them they don’t have to address the quarterback position again in the offseason — a franchise that drafted two quarterbacks this past spring in Sanders and Dillon Gabriel and carries Deshaun Watson on the roster is still searching for a future at the position.
“I’m the same person, regardless. I’ve still got the same belief in myself,” Sanders said. “I’m in the learning and understanding phase of this game and how things are … It’s definitely like it is any week, you have to get out there, learn from it, play better and that’s it.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
