Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Cam Newton Reflects on the Browns Quarterback Battle and How Shedeur Sanders Has ‘Created Competitive Commotion’

Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

It is more than common knowledge by now that the Cleveland Browns have twice as many quarterbacks on their roster as the number of wins they had last season.

The Browns’ QB room is, in all seriousness, a joke. No doubt recent training camp injuries led to the signing of Tyler Huntley, but even before that, they had 5 signal callers. Long story short, the Browns now face some difficult decisions as the recent performance of Shedeur Sanders during the week 1’s preseason game has created further confusion.

Sanders, who infamously slipped to the fifth round of the draft and was drafted after Dillon Gabriel, sits as the 4th string quarterback on the Browns’ roster. The competition ahead of him is an aged Joe Flacco, a turnover machine, and Dillon Gabriel, who was drafted higher than Sanders for reasons best known to the Browns.

Yeah, he's got the juice 🧃

Shedeur Sanders' NFL debut was the most-watched preseason game in a DECADE on NFL Network 📈 pic.twitter.com/39PecNub6A
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) August 14, 2025

Cam Newton Shares His Thoughts on Shedeurs’ Recent Performance

Breaking down the current chaos in the Browns’ QB room, former Panthers’ quarterback Cam Ward provided his insights to the situation on his podcast named ‘4th&1 With Cam Newton’. The former number one overall pick not only had positive things to say about Sanders, but also put forth a theory known as the 3-c’s – Create Competitive Commotion.

“You in a quarterback battle, big dog. We need everybody to start saying, “Oo, the boy looked good. He showed promise.” Did he have some mistakes? Absolutely. Could he have done some things better? Absolutely. But when given an opportunity and you make the most of that opportunity, you’ve created what we call triple C: Create Competitive Commotion.”

Browns QB Shedeur Sanders suffered an oblique strain today, will not practice Thursday, and is unlikely to play on Saturday vs. the Eagles. pic.twitter.com/sDVfMDh6Vz
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 13, 2025

Sanders played in his first game under center at the NFL level last week against the Carolina Panthers, where he looked confident and put in a solid performance, completing 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no picks.

Granted, he was playing against one of the weaker teams in a preseason game with backups, but even then, his confidence and the way he looked on the field generated a positive vibe overall.

And as per Newton, that is exactly what Cleveland needs – hope. Newton proceeded to compare the competition in the Browns’ QB room and expressed his opinion that if this continues, the Browns will have no choice but to play Sanders as their starter.

“You give them people hope, and they start to say, “Hold on, bro. Flacco man, your own kids don’t even think that you good. Hey man, Dylan, respectfully, bro. Kenny Pickett, brother, watch out. Go on to scooch. Deshaun, you’re draining us financially, and you’re hurt. So now in comes a person that can give these folks hope. It’s going to be a monster created so much that the coaches, the organization, and everybody else are going to have to play Shedeur Sanders.”

SHEDEUR SANDERS PUT ON A SHOW IN HIS PRESEASON DEBUT ⌚️ pic.twitter.com/yEhAL5YUxy
— ESPN (@espn) August 9, 2025

Interestingly, following Sanders’ well-received performance after the first preseason game, the newly released depth chart of the Browns still shows him as their fourth-string QB. Just how long and what the former Colorado Buffaloes’ star will have to do to climb the ladder is not known, but the Browns are sure to miss out on a talent if they keep him so far back on the depth chart.

Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Cam Newton

Cleveland Browns

NFL

Shedeur Sanders

Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!