Mike Florio ,
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On the day the Browns benched veteran quarterback Joe Flacco for rookie Dillon Gabriel, it’s natural for the media to seek comments from Flacco, Gabriel, and the team’s other quarterback: rookie Shedeur Sanders.
And so Sanders met with reporters in the locker room. In response to every question, he smiled, moved his mouth, but didn’t speak .
It’s unclear whether miming answers satisfies the league’s media policy. In past situations, the NFL’s position has been that the player only has to be available to take questions; answers don’t have to be given. For Marshawn Lynch, it was acceptable to repeatedly say, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
It’s also unclear why Sanders opted for silence. He was possibly unwilling to toe the party line regarding the depth chart, which still has him at No. 3 . Or maybe he was responding to the reaction to his recent remarks regarding his readiness to play — and his belief that he’s better than some quarterbacks who are playing .
Then there’s the possibility that he would have been asked about his decision to ask the Ravens not to draft him , given that he’d be playing this week (if he had beaten out Cooper Rush to be the primary backup to Lamar Jackson).
Regardless, Shedeur made a headline on the day Gabriel leapfrogged Flacco. Even if he did it without saying a single word.
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