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Deshaun Watson not at Browns practice; Shedeur Sanders gets starter reps
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- Deshaun Watson not at Browns practice; Shedeur Sanders gets starter reps
BEREA ― It was a pivotal day for the Browns ' quarterback situation heading into their Week 9 game at the New Orleans Saints .
For Deshaun Watson , if there is any chance of him clearing concussion protocol and actually being able to play, he needed to be on the field for the Browns ' practice. For Shedeur Sanders , it was a critical day of continuing to rebuild connections with pass catchers he hadn't worked significantly with since August in the high probability he would be starting in New Orleans.
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If Watson hoped to return, then it wasn't a good sign for him he wasn't able to be on the field for the second day in a row. That gave Sanders the first-team reps again, and keeps him on track to be the likely starter against the Saints .
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Offensive coordinator wants to see Shedeur Sanders 'let it rip'
Offensive coordinator Travis Switzer certainly talked like someone who was going to be watching Sanders against the Saints. That was even before the Browns had gone on the practice field.
"I'm just excited to see him go play and hopefully let it rip, which I think he'll do," Switzer said Nov. 5. "He did it yesterday in practice. Go lead, be in command, which I think he's grown tremendously in that area, really since we got here."
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Watson went into the protocol Nov. 3 after he self-reported concussion symptoms. Those symptoms date back to the Nov. 1 game at the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he sustained a helmet-to-helmet hit with 13:33 remaining in the first quarter from Steelers safety Jaquan Brisker.
Sanders replaced Watson in that game for four plays, completing both pass attempts for two yards. Watson returned for the second Browns possession and finished out the game, completing 27 of 39 passes for 324 yards, but also took eight sacks.
Deshaun Watson running out of time to play at Saints
Browns coach Todd Monken seemed to indicate that Watson couldn't necessarily miss all three days of practice ahead of the Nov. 7 walkthrough that will take place right before departing for New Orleans. Right tackle Tytus Howard was able to be cleared before they left for Pittsburgh the day before the game.
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Sanders has made two brief appearances this season when Watson has left a game because of a roughing penalty, the other coming in Week 3 against the Carolina Panthers. However, he did start the final seven games a year ago, as well spend the entire offseason and most of training camp in a competition with Watson for the starting job.
"I think Monk mentioned this the other day," Switzer said, "but when you're going through training camp, and we were splitting, and really all the spring, we were splitting a lot of those reps as we were going through all the installs, and we were able to see him in a lot more reps than probably a typical backup would be, because obviously we were finding out who our quarterback was going to be. So, hopefully he can review back to some of those things if it were to be him, and yeah, let it rip. Play with confidence."
Shedeur Sanders trying to find reps where he can
Sanders had two preseason games to stand for his game action this season. At least, the extensive game action they felt they could give him.
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Since then, Sanders has been basically a scout-team quarterback who has been seeking reps where he can find them here or there. This week, he'll have no problem finding them.
"I think he's done a nice job of staying engaged," Switzer said. "I think that our quarterback coaches in that room have done a great job, (Quarterbacks coach) Mike (Bajakian) and (assistant quarterbacks coach) Matt Baker, of trying to continue to challenge him and keep him involved. And he's asked questions in meetings. Whenever you can sneak, even if it's just a walkthrough rep with him, they've done that.
"Like, say we have to repeat a play, sometimes they'll just shuffle him in, and that way at least he gets the operation piece of it in a walkthrough as much as possible. But yeah, he's doing a nice job staying engaged and trying to go about it like he's playing."
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Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ. Sign up for Browns Insider newsletter at https://profile.beaconjournal.com/newsletters/browns-insider/
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Deshaun Watson not at Browns practice; Shedeur Sanders gets starter reps
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