Shilo Sanders is officially no longer in the NFL, and after he was fined by the Buccaneers for unnecessary roughness, he had been defended by Shannon Sharpe, who now has also been tough on the Cleveland Browns for not using Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel in what was the team’s first loss of the season.
If Sharpe didn’t like what Tampa Bay did with Shilo, he liked what the Browns did even less in the first game of the year by using veteran QB Joe Flacco. “I don’t know why y’all fooling with Joe Flacco,” Sharpe said, in reference to the franchise’s decision to use Flacco and instead of rookies Sanders and Gabriel.
“Y’all know Joe Flacco’s not taking y’all anywhere. He is not your quarterback of the future. If I’m going to lose, I’m going to lose trying to find out who my quarterback is. That’s just me. I don’t care if it’s Gabriel, I don’t care if it’s Shedeur,” Sharpe said on his Nightcap podcast.
Flacco Didn’t Have a Bad Game Despite Sharpe’s Complaint
It’s true that Sanders and Gabriel were not starters in the first game of the season, where the Browns lost 17-16 against the Bengals. But Flacco didn’t play badly; he just had some bad luck. However, according to Sharpe, he would not be the right man for the job.
Sharpe’s proposal is to use the rookies, who have no experience, instead of a quarterback who is a veteran of the offensive line like Flacco, who knows all kinds of tricks and, besides being a Super Bowl champion, played under John Harbaugh.
After his first game of the season with the Browns, Flacco said, “That’s football. I’m wishing I threw it a little bit better…we’re all going home tonight and trying to sleep with that on our chest,” after throwing for 290 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.
It is likely that at some point in the season, the Browns will give Gabriel and Shedeur an opportunity, just as Sharpe requested, but that remains to be seen. Other TV personalities also believe Shedeur could be good as a starter, including Skip Bayless, who said, “If Shedeur had started yesterday (Week 1 game) for the Browns, they would’ve beaten the Bengals.”