Many a head was scratched on Wednesday, when Cleveland Browns third-string QB Shedeur Sanders answered reporters’ questions in non-verbal miming fashion.
Now, ESPN thinks they know why he did that.
On Wednesday, the Browns announced they were benching starter Joe Flacco and rolling with rookie Dillon Gabriel as QB1 from here on out—Sanders’ status as QB3 remained unchanged.
After the announcement, reporters asked Sanders about his role on the team. His response was unusual to say the least.
That reaction went viral and sparked a heated debate across social media.
Later on Wednesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that, according to team sources, Sanders’ miming act was a response to criticism levied against him by former NFL coach Rex Ryan on Monday morning’s edition of Get Up.
“This kid runs his mouth like, ‘I got could be a starting quarterback,’ with his arms crossed like this. Get your ass in the front row and study and do all that. If I know, the whole league knows,” Ryan said. “Quit being an embarrassment that way. You got the talent to be a quarterback. You should be embarrassed that you’re not the quarterback now.”
It’s unclear that Schefter’s report makes Sanders look any better.
Why was Sanders reacting to what a media member said about him instead of responding to the fact that his team has no faith in his ability to be a starter? Don’t get me wrong, finding out that Sanders was reacting to Rex Ryan is still preferable to discovering that Sanders has lost his mind.
However, it still reveals that Sanders is more concerned about media and image than he is about what’s actually going on with his very tenuous NFL career.