Giving Shedeur one day of reps with the 1s, for the very first time at a joint practice no less, two days before a start, is not even remotely indicative of a team that’s correctly preparing a QB for evaluation. This is a sink or swim situation.
Handling it this way is a textbook case of how NOT to put your players in a position to succeed. That being said, he’s a 5th rounder. He’s lucky to get this shot really. If Gabriel’s healthy, Shedeur would see time in the second half. Now it’s all on him. He’s gotta make it count. If he doesn’t produce, I think we all know how that shakes out. We’ve seen it for over two years now. They’ll write his career obituary based on a half of a preseason game.
I can’t think of another “fifth round quarterback” I would even give half a shot to make it work with these conditions in their first camp. He’s not a 5th round talent though. The good news for him is he’s used to having to play flawless football to get the job done. He did the last two years.
This is also an audition for the 31 other teams. No matter how well he plays, Stefanski and Berry will stay with Gabriel. They planted their flag there. Politics matter more than anything else in professional sports. Especially at that position. Only in the rarest cases do you see anyone win that battle as the underdog. If he plays like he always has and proves he belongs, the outside chatter only gets louder.
That won’t affect things on the field in camp though. Gabriel will go back to getting reps with the 1s and he will go back with the 3s and 4s on Monday. The next time a GM and a HC openly admit they made a mistake in evaluation or with a personnel decision will be the first time in NFL history. Those are the mistakes that get you fired. Maybe not in Cleveland because they really don’t know what they’re doing, but for functional franchises…
It’s probably a blessing in disguise for the them that Gabriel got dinged up. If the rest of the world saw them play consecutively, it would be obvious. As it is now according to those there everyday at training camp. Yet if DG played and got the start, the built-in excuse of invalidating any good performance by Shedeur by not playing against better players would’ve already have been there. Not like this. That’s the upside.
So Shedeur has ONE shot to get through to the next phase of evaluation, and the proof will be in the pudding. Either way the Browns get another week to figure out what to do. It will become increasingly complicated for them if he does well.
