DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2025 NFL Season Preseason Gameday vs Carolina Post Game Thoughts

- Sanders really couldn't have looked much better. That was a great start. He seemed poised, under control, pretty accurate, quicker than I thought ... really nice start

- Sampson/Ford are clearly our backs right now ... Sampson didn't play much

- Hopkins has gone from GREAT to SCARY

- Floreia and #84 probably both deserve roster spots

- Our backup DL looked very good. That's a good sign

We looked sharper than our usual preseason openers. No turnovers! Not a huge number of flags. We put up some points. Congrats to SS. Played well and got some help. D held its own and got off the field. Not sure about injuries.

We looked better tonight than after Camp Cupcake openers that I remember.

Sanders looked pretty good overall.
Made some really nice passes.
And a couple poor ones.

He still has the tendency drift out of his dropback
Twice he tried to take 20+ yard sacks but failed.

What was up wiwth the big A$$ gold chain?

I am already tired of and annoyed by wristup
Why can't wh have a Qb who just plays good football
No gimmicks

At least we didn't look like a complete ^%#@%show tonight. Sanders looked good at times. (and really good on 3 or 4 throws and a couple of runs)

Defense looked solid. We have a ton of rookie WRs, and many looked decent.

We also played the team with one of the absolutely worse defenses last year. However, Sanders had outstanding ball placement on the 2 TD passes.

j/c:

The fight:



I never tried posting a twitter/X feed until now, so if that doesn't work, here is the article with it:

NFL preseason game erupts into wild fight as two players are tossed and one has his helmet ripped off

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/n...te-rayshawn-jenkins-panthers-browns.html

I saw Sanders play better than I thought he would (but remember folks it's pre season and the defense plays pretty vanilla. Our last pre season game last year Huntley went 17/22 146 yards with 3 TD's

Our RB's ran HARD (hoping Ford got stronger as he has always gone down easy.)

I hope to have time to watch the game over again before making any more observations.

It's only one game against not the most talented team but Shadeur looked very good and he was playing with our #2's against the Panthers #1's and moved the ball. He did miss some open guys which would have made his stats even better but all in all a very good performance. Our backup RB's particularly Marshall and our young WR's looked good too.

One thing I noticed about sanders in college that he redemonstrated last night (and in multiple practice highlights) was this knack of getting the ball through traffic.

He can throw the ball to a guy that is triple covered
3 defensive players reachig out for the ball and none touch it
The ball somehow finds a way to wiggle itself through

Good first look for a lot of players.

I am not all that concerned with the RB room. I saw 3 different FA type backs who looked to run with power, speed, and authority.

Sanders looked good. Played with some poise and threw several great balls. No complaints. We might have something there.

I like Gage and Floriea Too bad both got dinged to some degree. If they can keep playing like that, I'd rather roll with them over David Bell and some of the other stiffs who have made it to our WR room

If nothing else, out with the old stiff, in with the new. It's one thing to develop a player. It's another to spend 4 years trying. Two seasons. After that, time to move on. QB might be a bit longer than 2 years.

Not sure what it was I was expecting. I mean, here we have a young man (sanders) that apparently every team in the league passed on several times before the Browns finally took him. Shouldn't that mean he's destined to flop?

Anyway, thats not at all what he looked like.. Poised and looked like he belonged out there. Didn't get rattled at all. Two TD's and that pass to Floriea,,, the catch was a thing of Beauty... Floriea belongs here. And the kid who's last name I can never remember, Gage something, played well.

I thought overall, this was a good game. Looks like we may have something to work with at QB...

Grossi getting called out, lol.

Shadeur confronted Grossi the right way. He was decent not disrespectful or pugnacious about it. And yes, it looks like our WR and RB room may be deeper than we thought. Cautious optimism at this point...

I had flashbacks to Deion throwing water at Tim McCarver lol .. Shedeur was more classy of Course

When you’re a QB , a leader, just ignore the media. However he had a nice game, drifted back into trouble like in college, a couple times but overall a good start.

A rookie after one preseason game shouldn't be taking on the media that way. That's not a good sign at all. Hope he keeps that kind of crap in check. Let your play do your talking. Very childish on his part.

As for the game Sanders did come out a little unsure. It showed in his stats and play. But he soon settled down and did a fine job. He seemed to read the field pretty well overall. And I saw something from him last night that hasn't been an attribute of his much in the past but shined brightly. That was his ability to take off and scramble. He looked quite mobile, picked his opportunities to do so when the defense gave it to him. He also was smart enough to get past the sticks and get down before taking any direct hits. I was impressed by that. He still displayed his propensity to hang onto the ball when it would be est to throw it away but last night didn't pay the price for it with huge sacks. That certainly won't always be the case moving forward. But in the grand scheme of things that's something they should be able to coach out of him.

His pluses far outweighed his negatives. Others have already pointed out that this was only a preseason game against a team with a horrible defense. Teams play with a lot of backups and don't show their regular season offenses or defenses much. It's pretty vanilla stuff in general. That works both ways. It was a good start for both Sanders and this O in general. It takes building blocks to to lay a foundation and I saw that last night. I couldn't have expected anything more.

A lot of backups on D played against Carolina's first string O and held up pretty well overall under those circumstances. Once it got to the point of backups verses backups they dominated. Once again I have to keep things in the perspective of it being the initial preseason game, with that being said the way the D played last night reminded me more of the 2023 Browns D than the 2024 Browns D.

On to Philly next week and we shall see what we shall see.

Philly could definitely humble him. Carolina, even though it was their 1st stringers at times, is not a good defense.

That could be. Only time will tell. I don't take anything away from last night other than his play last night. And you are right. Philly is a much better team at all levels so it's hard to have a clue how he will look against them. Or depending on Pickett and Gabriel's injury progress if Sanders will even start next week. All of those factors are unknowns.

Sounds like Floriea should be fine.

Pit, I'm not saying Shadeur confronting Grossi was the right thing to do I'm just saying he did it the right way. He has to learn that if he plays well the media will and should acknowledge it. As for throwing the ball away when there's nothing there if they could coach it out of Vinny Testaverde, they can coach it out of Shadeur!

84 should be the punt returner. He is shifty. I only saw him on one punt return, but he looks the part.

definitely liked 84 and his athletic traits

First let's address this part of your post.....


The way I was raised there is no right way to do the wrong thing. If you mean he didn't throw a fit, curse and scream at Gossi you are right. So he could have done the wrong thing in an even worse way if that's what you're trying to say.


Did you mean to say the media won't always acknowledge it? Because they won't always do that. In many cases the media will create controversies where none really exists. Or did you mean Grossi should learn that he should always acknowledge it? Because if that's what you mean, it isn't Sanders job to try and teach that to the media. He needs to understand there will always be detractors and learn to live with it instead of confronting the media. If not the media will have a field day with it. He hasn't yet figured out how that works. If you plan to be an NFL QB you have to have thicker skin than that.

It's only a big deal if the team can't reel him in and stop him from doing that moving forward. If they can't it could become a huge distraction.


Yes, that's pretty much what I said......

Great result!

I’m glad that the Browns FO made the late decision to draft Shedeur against the owners wishes. Finally two wrongs ended up as one right.

Sanders isn’t a 5th rounder, and so far he has handled himself impeccable inside Berea. The speeding offense can be a blessing in disguise because it forced him to immediate accountability. I can see far away in the horizon a potential FQB if he continues to develop and the Browns under a season give him the chance behind Flacco to learn the craft to become a professional QB.

Too fast and too soon is the potential danger.

one other thing that I remember - sanders audibled or switched play sides a few times and that showed a nice sign IMO. One of them turned into a 10 yard run

Shedeur Sanders, the quarterback from Colorado, was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round with the 144th overall pick. He is indeed a fifth pick. Nothing will ever change what position he was selected in the draft.

And his first preseason game, while it looked promising, is no indication of future results. There is also no evidence that actually supports this FO drafted Sanders against the Haslam's wishes.

Are you simply posting what you dreamed last nigh?

This bumps him up a notch in my book.

I have no problems whatsoever with a player in a nice and respectful way confronting idiots. Tony Grossi falls in that category.

Shedeur is also a brand and a face for his followers on social media. He has almost two parallel careers.

What he did against Grossi was to set boundaries and held him accountable to protect his brand. Shedeurs followers will now take care of the rest.
Some may not like this but this’s the new reality where social media is often more powerful than the conventional media.

I like it as long he’s not disrespectful and it’s not affecting his commitments with the Browns.
Both works in the eyes of the public and then they both know that to accept fair criticism is part of their job.

I thought I was the negative one. You and Tony Grossi….

The only thing he "set" was to set himself up if he keeps doing this.

Your comment above is what it looks like when you weren't paying attention without telling people you weren't paying attention...................


Try again silly rabbit.

In the 2024 last preseason game Huntley went 17-27 fr 146 yards and 3 TD's. What did that tell you? Try to keep up next time. He looked good in his first outing as I said before.

Your silly BS doesn't change any of these facts.....................

I like Sanders a lot and really hope he does well. I am not a fan of the wrist up thing just as I was not a fan of Manziel's money sign shtick. But whatever, just win games.

For me it's about context. An NFL player with a body of work with which to stand on has a lot more leeway. I'm not a Grossi fan by any stretch of the imagination. But Sanders is a fifth round draft pick with an entire half a preseason game under his belt. For me a player has to build up a resume' that gives him the right to do such a thing. One of those "you need to earn it first" situations. For now he just needs to keep his head down and put in the work.

I can see that not everybody agrees with that but if Sanders stumbles it only gives Grossi the ammunition to say he was right about Sanders from the beginning. As a young player who is still wet behind the ears I don't think that's a favorable position to put yourself in. But we all have to learn from our mistakes when we are young.

Positives

For the first time in a long . long . long time the Team came out and looked prepared and well Coached ! ! The Panthers are a bottom dweller but it was a pretty decent 1st PRESEASON game .. The D was very interesting to watch .. This kid 66 just might be a sleeper... Did anyone else get a kick out of the smallish running back Tuoa ? He is fast and makes nice cuts.Sanders looked good for his fist shot out of the gate.. Basically threw two TD passes to the same receiver on the same play { how bad are the Panthers } .. 138 yards in three quarters and no interceptions . As others have said , the Receiver room looks to be interesting .. Maybe , I say maybe the RB room might have a little juice... Next week against the Eagles will be a lot more telling.

He’s got him some neon going on in there right?

After doing some reading, I’ve decided that I do not like SS wearing the “Legendary” gold chain, and that Traitor LeBron, as well as Deion, need to shut up.
Both of them need to go away.

They’re too old, it’s over.

Just shut the .... up. I’m already not liking the circus. And the kid hasn’t proved much at all.

My thinking is that I wouldn't be surprised if Baker had done something like that his rookie year, and i wouldn't hold it against him.

So, i'm not gonna hold it against Sanders, especially since Baker probably would have been a bigger jerk to him


So, I give it a pass

You should hear what the guys say about Tony when he is not around lol

I don't care if he wears a boat anchor around his neck. If he plays well enough to win, what the hell else even matters. As for him proving anything, no, he hasn't. Hell, he even graded himself as a C+. He appears to be a humble kid. And I think he showed the game isn't too big for him.. At least that's the first overall impression I got.

I swear, some would find an issue if Tom Brady II showed up to play.

I agree. We looked good on both O and D.

The cautionary note is I think Hue Jackson won a lot preseason games.

I suppose you must have forgotten what Tom Brady was like already.

Let's recap shall we?

Sanders gave himself a C+ grade. Pretty much average by his own evaluation. He then apologized to his dad for his performance.......

"Sorry pops," Sanders said on the sideline. "I didn't do what I was supposed to do fully. But, you know, we'll live to see another opportunity."

Both present a humble kid knowing he still has a lot to learn. That's a very good sign.

Then he goes on to confront Grossi?

Explain to me how that makes any sense?

He's just a kid. He, like most of us at his age still has some growing up to do. Nobody is making it sound like the end of the world here. But then again making excuses for it isn't attractive either.

Schwesinger definitely is an active and instinctive LB. We really need him to be a good player

I didn’t have an issue with confronting grossi - felt more like playful banter to me…. But understand where you’re coming from in terms of being a rookie and needing to keep his head down….

Overall I think he played better than I expected… he’s handled himself pretty well overall, again better than I was expecting…. Flacco, if healthy, should still be the starter

Overall team looked pretty solid.. it’s preseason game #1 so really doesn’t mean much… but cautiously optimistic on how we looked. at least we didn’t look completely incompetent

I don't think the issue with Grossi is some big red flag or anything. Otherwise we certainly agree. The kid did great for his first time in the NFL. Of course keeping that in the context of the first preseason game. Hopefully there will be more to come.

Confronts ? Looks like little t stepped to him

Employee #12’s handler tries to interrupt the interaction ~ yep old school say nothing may have been the plan

As Rap says this happens all day everyday

But in this case I like what happened and think it helps move the beat writer / athlete dynamic forward

another + for SS

Good luck kid!

Could you post that in English? What was shown is just how easily Sanders can be baited by the press. I don't think it's a big issue unless the press uses this as fuel to continue to bait the kid. Hopefully some of his people can help him correct it soon. Like him or not Grossi is a grizzled veteran at his craft. Sanders is still a kid. If this turns into a game where Sanders can be baited by the press, the press will win.

Of course they could take the MKC approach and proclaim Sanders as Legendary after one half of play in a preseason game.

I hope one of our young QB's takes the bull by the horns and becomes a top end guy for us. If it's Shadeur great I have no problem with it. I really like the kid. I just hope our FO and coaches have no animosity towards him and play favorites. You read some stuff that's been said out of TC and you wonder.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1954348610705146207


The best friend a MLB has is a NT/DT who can draw a double team which allows the MLB one less OLman to block him.

In this case, Mason Graham did an excellent job of drawing two OLmen which allowed Schwesinger to focus on the RB.

I haven't seen anything that would indicate that to me. To me it wouldn't make any sense to draft a kid you have animosity towards to begin with. I believe all the coaching staff and FO want to do is win. And it only makes sense for them to play the QB who gives them the best chance of doing that. Of course for long range success it would be much better if that QB turned out to be one of the rookies.

What have you seen that would indicate to you this coaching staff has any animosity towards Shedeur?

The thing I noticed is that they had him 4th on the depth chart and he wasn’t getting reps with the first stringers. Dillon seemed to be getting more reps.

Well we proved our back ups were better than their back ups. I don't feel excited yet. It's just preseason against a bad team.

Some good things happened though. Mason was a BEAST! They were double teaming him hard and he was still collapsing the pocket. He was playing with serious ferocity and I loved it. It will be fun when him and Myles are both playing. Our backup DBs looked pretty decent when the first string stopped playing but not so great against the ones but I will take what I can get. I want to feel excited about that kid Marshal who played RB because he ran with authority and I liked his playstyle but it was against a bad defense so I have to reign in the results a bit. I saw some nice catches by our back up WRs too. Davis looks like a legit redzone threat!

Sanders did some really good things and some not so good things. He showed that great poise of his and he never got rattled. I love that about the kid! Most of his throws were very accurate! Still saw him holding the ball too long but it looks like he has improved on this a great deal so I am happy to see him progress on this. His pocket awareness was off the charts and looked fabulous! Some of his tight throws I think would get intercepted or broken up against a better defense but only time will tell. Either way we all know he has great timing on his throws and that he throws with a lot of good touch. I was annoyed by the dink and dunk a bit but that might be the play that was called or it might be him scared to go deep. At least he got more aggressive in the red zone which I liked a lot. To me there was only one very glaring thing he didn't do well. He flat out SUCKS when handing the ball off to the running backs. I mean he is pretty much is drained of energy and limp when he hands it off to the point defense will instantly KNOW he is about to hand it off. He needs to fix that FAST or our RBs will get killed. All of that being said, for a rookie preseason game I thought Sanders did pretty good. I think the large chunk of playing time did him a lot of good. I'd give him a B grade for his performance.

I thought his behavior towards Grossi was unprofessional and shows he is paying way too much attention to the media. How will he handle it when he loses a few games and the media starts actually being critical of him? Grossi is about the only one with the guts to state what he thinks instead of sucking up to him. The fact he can't handle media criticism is not a good sign of maturity. I think he is still young though but I hope the idol worship he gets from his fans doesn't get into his head too much because that can ruin a person. That would be a shame too because I really like Sanders as a human being and I don't want to see what happened to Tim Tebow happen to Sanders. I have hope though because I like the way he graded himself because he was harder on himself than I was of him. He kind of reminds me of a weaker armed Joe Montana. He just has the charm and leadership I like in a QB.

I love that we won and won BIG =) I would love to see more of this!

That's certainly a conclusion one could draw from it. The thing is that's based on very limited knowledge about what goes on at practice and the film room. Without knowing how quickly all of the QB's are processing information I certainly feel I don't feel I have enough information to draw such a conclusion. I've never played football on anything remotely close to NFL level. But to the level I have played football as well as other sports I do know that often times players do not always practice to the same level as they play in games.

Some are work out warriors and excel at practices. Yet on game day their performance does not live up to what you saw on the practice field. The same can be said in the other direction as well. Some athletes don't look all that well at practice but once the lights come on and the adrenaline starts to flow on game day they excel. In this case they are both rookies who had never been in an NFL game situation. So this is the time the coaching staff has to sort all of that out.

I certainly can't say with any sense of confidence which one of us is right or wrong on this topic with the exception of it wouldn't make any sense for a coaching staff to hold back any player at any position that gives their team the best chance to win. And the QB position is the one position most critical to wins and losses.

I thought Sanders displayed the positive traits he showed in college. His accuracy is impressive. He completed 74% of his passes last year in college to lead the FBS. The touch he showed on that 1st touchdown pass was really impressive. Thread the needle and placed the ball where only his receiver could come down with it. Also, that bullet he threw backed up in the end zone 30 yards down field showed poise and anticipation.

While he still at least twice drifted back trying to keep plays alive that he needs to work out of his game, He also stepped up in the pocket like pro QB's then slid right and threw another accurate throw that only his receiver could get to on that 2nd TD.

One preseason game is not nearly enough sample size to proclaim he is a future franchise QB. It was really impressive and encouraging. Nice to see the QB the analysts thought was a 1st round draft pick show up 1st preseason game. Flacco is clearly the best QB on the roster, but I believe from what local media have seen during off season work and this game Sanders is probably the 2nd best QB on the roster with the most potential to actually be a franchise QB.

The drifting is definitely his weakest point IMO. That will lead to problems if he can't kick that habit. Sliding in the pocket (like the TD) is the way to do it

Love that. Baldinger knows his stuff. Hopefully CS will be very good player for us.

I'm not at all sure what you mean by me forgetting what Tom Brady was like?

I think we agree on the humble thing.

Did you see the video of him confronting Grossi? My take away was it was done in a very fun loving way.. not confrontational at all... That's my take anyway. And it doesn't have to make sense. If the kid is having fun, let him.

I made no excuses.. I simply stated my opinion,,, I'm sure that's still allowed.

Yeah, the interaction between Sanders and Grossi is more playful than anything else. Grossi has been fairly tough on Sanders on Cleveland Radio and other media platforms. Sanders was joking with him and from what I have seen Grossi was laughing at the exchange also. There was no animosity in the exchange between Sanders and Grossi.

Deon's son is NO ROOKIE in PR- he and ALL his brothers are BRAND and PR EXPERTS- I dislike his brash PR stuff, IF he produces on field against FIRST teamers keep him, if not- let he and his BRAND make money somewhere else....Go Browns!!!

Man, I wish we had a healthy JOK. Those 2 would be great together.

yep DoD - I didn't see #12 "confront" & I didn't see little t "bait" either (maybe he was going there, but SS being jovial polite and engaging = +++).

As rapport tweeted this is an all day every day thing in / outside the locker room.

10 years ago many would have questioned taking a mental health day, watching your child be born or grieving a lost loved one. The old school way of head down and mouth shut, still may work for some and in certain situations may be best but there are other ways too. The world keeps spinning and getting better, I like that.

Now lets root for Kenny v his buddies.

I had no idea that applied to respect being earned and not given.

I know - JOK and him would make us so crazy in the middle

I noticed that a lot. Graham was doubled nearly every play when he was in. That is a lot of respect for a rook in his first game.

First, JOK is probably done as a player.

Second, both wouldn't be playing the middle. I doubt we would be playing them in some sort of rotation.

Remind me ...what were Tony's Stats for the Game?
Both OBVIOUSLY got 'Click Bait Fodder' as this thread shows....

It was a Preseason..... nobody, whose name you will ever remember after the first cuts, really Sucked.
Sanders showed that maybe someone should have snagged him in the 4th round.
Early Days.