Shedeur Sanders is the guy the Cleveland Browns have been waiting for. Those were his words. As one of the most talked-about players this season, Sanders made franchise history on Sunday.
Sanders, almost inexplicably, became the first Browns starting quarterback to get a win in his debut in 30 years. It was a streak of 17 quarterbacks in a row who failed to win their debut game for the team, going all the way back to Eric Zeier in 1995.
Zeier likely thought his name would never be mentioned in an NFL game again. That changed on Sunday. So, who was Eric Zeier, the football player?
The last Browns QB to win his first NFL start was Eric Zeier, who beat the Cincinnati Bengals in overtime in 1995. Cleveland’s head coach that year was Bill Belichick, and that was the year before the Browns moved to Baltimore. Https://t.co/gMkGeL4aqJ pic.twitter.com/wgsBjv0EFn
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 23, 2025
Zeier was a third-round pick of the Browns in 1995 out of Georgia. That was the team's last year in Cleveland before Art Modell moved them to Baltimore to become the Ravens. So this disastrous streak goes all the way back to the original Browns. Zeier spent three seasons in Baltimore before playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons. He finished his playing career with the Georgia Force of the Arena Football League in 2002.
Zeier threw for 3,520 yards with 16 touchdowns and 15 interceptions across 12 NFL starts.
As a rookie, Zeier was named the Browns' backup behind Vinny Testaverde. His career was largely uneventful, but the one thing he did, that no Browns QB has been able to do for three decades was to win his first start.
That start came on October 29, 1995, against the Cincinnati Bengals at Riverfront Stadium. He didn't have a terrific performance, completing 26 of 46 passes for 310 yards. He didn't throw a touchdown pass until the fourth quarter when he hit Andre Rison for a 17-yard score.
The game went into overtime and Matt Stover booted a 28-yard field goal to give the Browns the win. The Browns went on to lose their next six games following that win and their head coach, Bill Belichick, was dismissed following the season.
Sanders hopes that this win starts a trend in the opposite direction for the Browns, one that sees him become the team's quarterback of the future, something many have argued will happen when he gets his chance.
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