Browns’ Kevin Stefanski explains controversial decision on Shedeur Sanders and Myles Garrett

Browns’ Kevin Stefanski explains controversial decision on Shedeur Sanders and Myles Garrett originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

In Shedeur Sanders’ first-ever NFL start, he helped the Cleveland Browns snap a three-game losing streak in a 24-10 victory over the Raiders. Despite his winning QB1 debut, Sanders did not receive the game ball from head coach Kevin Stefanski in the locker room after the win.

Instead, Stefanski gave the game ball to Myles Garrett for his three-sack outing. The future Hall-of-Famer and six-time Pro-Bowler now leads the NFL with 18 sacks in 11 games this season, which already breaks his personal sacks record for a single campaign.

Peter Botte of The New York Post reported on Stefanski’s decision that ruffled the feathers of many Browns fans and Sanders fans who hoped the fifth-round rookie would receive more recognition.

“Every game, you go into it trying to just highlight guys … Myles [Garrett] got a game ball. I thought he was probably pretty worthy. But you’re just trying to constantly recognize your guys … We spent time, as well, pointing out all of our guys and the jobs they did. Pointed out Gage Larvadain having a big punt return, which was huge for our team. Your D-line doesn’t get 10 sacks unless the coverage is really good. Obviously, a rookie starting his first game on the road getting a win is huge. So you acknowledge all that with your team,” Stefanski said.

At least for one game, Sanders looked like a worthy replacement for fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel. Sanders threw for 209 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and he only took one sack. In comparison, Gabriel took three sacks per game across his six starts and absorbed a whopping six sacks in two of those contests. Gabriel also cracked 200 passing yards in just one of those six outings.

Despite Sanders’ measured performance that contributed to a win, the Browns defense was a true X-factor as Cleveland sacked Raiders quarterback Geno Smith an incredible 10 times. For that reason, Stefanski’s decision to award defensive captain Garrett the game ball made sense.

Even so, Stefanski’s muted mention of Sanders in the postgame celebration went viral as countless fans called out Cleveland’s sixth-year head coach for effectively glossing over a historic game in which rookie skill players accounted for more than 75% of Sanders’ passing yards. Cleveland’s rookie signal-caller fired most of his passes to fellow rookies all day long, and it paid dividends for his team.

Stefanski gave a subdued shoutout to Sanders with a simple “Nice job, Shedeur, well done.” However, his lack of overblown praise for the rook may have signalled a high level of confidence and expectations for the former Colorado football star.

Sanders may not have won the game ball for Cleveland, but he has plenty of support across the league heading into his second-ever NFL start against the San Francisco 49ers.