Daniel Oyefusi
BEREA, Ohio — As the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback competition progresses into mandatory minicamp, rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders has often found himself practicing with a crew of backups while the team’s other passers — Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel — have received first-team reps.
Sanders, though, said he’s unbothered by his practice reps and is instead looking to take advantage of every opportunity he gets.
“Life is just based on how you view different things,” Sanders said Tuesday after the Browns’ first mandatory minicamp practice. “So you can view things as you’re not getting reps in a negative way or you can view it as, OK, when it’s my time to get out there, let’s be proactive and let’s get warm, let’s get going.
“So, there’s no excuses because when you get out there, nobody cares how many reps you got whenever you get in the game. Nobody cares if you took a snap before. Everybody cares about production. So that’s the main thing when you get out there: You got to be able to produce.”
Sanders, the Browns’ fifth-round pick, and Gabriel, the team’s third-round pick, took the bulk of the practice reps in team drills on Tuesday, which coach Kevin Stefanski said was intentional as Cleveland continues to develop its rookie quarterbacks. But as the general trend has been through two OTA practices open to the media, Gabriel received a portion of reps with starters, while Sanders worked with backups.
Stefanski has praised the growth of both young passers, while downplaying the quarterback competition that looms over each practice. Sanders took a similar approach when asked about his goal during the offseason workout program and training camp.
“My goal is to be the best teammate and to be as polished as I can be in every aspect,” Sanders said. “I view things as I got time. I got time to be able to grow and mature and be able to understand the ins and outs of the defenses and be able to get the good insight from the vets in the room.
“So, I look at it as a plus. I got time to actually be able to really have a great understanding and whenever it’s time for me to play, then it’s time for me to play. But I’m not looking too far in the future about all that. I’m looking [at] every day in practice. … I’m focused on the small things and over time the big things will happen.”
