Shedeur Sanders Denies Shading Saints in Viral Video, Offers Apology After Browns Loss

The Cleveland Browns made a change at quarterback for Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints out of necessity, as Deshaun Watson was sidelined after he spent time in the concussion protocol during the week.

That meant Shedeur Sanders made his first start of the season, and it was quite the performance for the Colorado product.

On paper, he went 19-of-31 for 297 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions in the dramatic 23-22 overtime loss.

After the game, he made sure to say that he was not trying to shade the Saints defense with his comments earlier in the week and offered an apology "if my words were taken out of context."

Sanders made headlines in the days leading up to the game after discussing what he saw on film:

Sanders will surely be thinking about the play he didn't make at the end when the Browns went for two and the win after Harold Fannin Jr.'s touchdown just for Sanders to throw an incomplete pass.

Despite the incompletion, he was impressive in crunch time with a 64-yard go-ahead TD pass to KC Concepcion in the fourth quarter and then a field-goal drive that included taking a massive hit from Chase Young and still delivering a strike to Jerry Jeudy to set up Andre Szmyt's field goal to force the overtime.

Here's what he had to say about the play after the game:

He also had the touchdown pass to Fannin in overtime and played much better in the second half.

After all, it was anything but an ideal start for Sanders, who threw for an ugly 38 yards in the first half as the visitors scored three points. While he didn't turn the ball over, he appeared to turn the wrong direction on a 4th-and-goal play from the 1-yard line.

The confusion on the handoff led to Quinshon Judkins being stuffed, which was the type of mistake the struggling offense couldn't afford to make on the road.

However, Sanders set up a go-ahead field goal in the third quarter when he unleashed a deep ball to Denzel Boston, who made an adjustment and an incredible catch while high-pointing the ball.

It was part of a much better second-half from the quarterback, as he appeared to get more comfortable as the game progressed.

This comes after Watson and Sanders battled for the top position on the team's depth chart in training camp before the former eventually earned the No. 1 spot. Through the first eight games, the 31-year-old starter completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 1,806 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions.

He also went 5-3 in those starts, which put the Browns in the AFC playoff race in the early going.

As for Sanders, he is in the midst of his second season with Cleveland after he was selected with a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft.

He suited up in eight games as a rookie, including seven starts. Sanders completed 56.6 percent of his passes for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns to go along with 10 interceptions.

The 24-year-old also played in two preseason games this year, finishing 15-of-22 for 153 yards and one touchdown while getting picked off twice.