Shedeur Sanders is getting a chance.
For much of this offseason, that was the question being asked: Why weren't the Cleveland Browns giving their rookie QB out of Colorado more opportunity?
It certainly can't have been an easy spot for Sanders to be in, the QB4 in a four-man competition that also includes Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel.
But on Friday night, it'll be all about Sanders. Those three guys aren't playing in the preseason opener in Carolina, and Cleveland only has recently signed Tyler Huntley to relieve Sanders at some point.
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Sanders will start, and if there's even a miniscule chance of him getting the Week 1 regular season starting QB job, it begins Friday night.
"If he plays well, people will notice," Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio writes. "Fans will notice. Buzz will build. Maybe he’ll get more opportunities. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll leapfrog Gabriel and Pickett and Flacco and become the Week 1 starter."
Sanders isn't the most talented QB on the planet. He wouldn't have fallen to the fifth round and pick No. 144 of April's NFL Draft if he was.
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But he's got a lot of the traits a quarterback needs. He's accurate, having completed 74% of his passes in his final season with the Buffaloes. He's humble, aware that he's got a lot he needs to work on to get where he wants to go. And he's a leader, showing throughout training camp that he wants his teammates to get attention, too.
There's no telling how the preseason debut will go. Sanders is expected to face at least some of the Panthers' first-string defense, which will provide a solid test.
But the fact that Sanders gets this chance at all is important. He may have lucked into the start in the first week of the preseason, but anything that comes after this won't be luck. It'll be up to Sanders to seize it.
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