UPDATE: Shedeur Sanders is considered day-to-day with his oblique injury. He will be held out of practice tomorrow and is considered unlikely to play in Saturday’s preseason game, but he is expected to be ready by the regular season.
The Cleveland Browns quarterback battle continues to be one of the more interesting storylines across NFL training camps. Plenty of eyes are on 144th overall pick Shedeur Sanders, with this magnified following his impressive preseason debut. But the Colorado product suffered an oblique injury in the early parts of today’s joint practice with the Philadelphia Eagles and will miss the remainder of the practice.
Cleveland has not yet released any information on the severity of the issue. Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel are each already battling hamstring injuries, which further complicates the quarterback outlook.
Potential injury impact
It is a crowded quarterback room in Cleveland with Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, Tyler Huntley and Sheduer Sanders each competing for the starting role. Getting as many training camp repetitions as possible is important as the players look to separate themselves. This is true for all of the quarterbacks on the roster, but is especially the case for Sanders.
For the first time since being drafted, there seemed to be some momentum surrounding Sanders’ outlook. The 23-year-old impressed in his preseason debut and was effective in carving up a Carolina Panthers defense. While all preseason stats should be taken with a grain of salt, Sanders produced the highest QB PFF rating of all rookies.
Head Coach Kevin Sefanski told reporters the plan is for Sanders to start Saturday’s preseason matchup against the Eagles, but the injury could complicate this. Sanders made the most of his expanded opportunity with Pickett and Gabriel battling their injury issues. But another strong preseason showing could go a long way toward putting him more firmly in the starting quarterback conversation. Some tough decisions will need to be made as the organization starts to sort through what their final quarterback room will look like ahead of the regular season.
More updates will be added as provided by the team.
Despite his uncertain outlook, Sanders holds the 15th-best odds for Offensive Rookie of the Year at +4000 on DraftKings Sportsbook. Cleveland also holds +115 odds of winning over 5.5 games this season.
