Shedeur Sanders made his regular-season debut for the Cleveland Browns during the team’s 23-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, and it wasn’t the outing he would’ve hoped for in his first real action in the NFL.

Sanders went 4-of-16 for 47 yards, was sacked twice and threw an interception. The Ravens ultimately saw tight end Mark Andrews score a rushing touchdown in the 23-17 victory.

Sanders was critical of himself after the game, but former NFL quarterback Cam Newton said this game backed up an opinion he’s had for quite a while.

“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I do not think Kevin Stefanski wants Shedeur Sanders to succeed in Cleveland,” Newton said on ESPN’s “First Take”. “The reason being is, don’t tell me what he said, don’t tell me what he’s saying. I’m going off of actions – alright? Let’s go off actions.

“The actions is, if I’m Shedeur, or if I’m a Shedeur Sanders fan, I would not want him to take the field because that’s going to consistently be the display we’re going to see. It doesn’t matter if it’s Deshaun Watson, it doesn’t matter if it’s Shedeur Sanders, it doesn’t matter if it’s Dillon Gabriel, it doesn’t matter if it’s Dan Orlovsky, it doesn’t matter if it’s Cam Newton. You need help in Cleveland. When you have a quarterback that’s still making $46 million on your roster, and he’s not healthy, that impacts the talent that’s around him. They are not a good team.”

The Browns are 2-8 this season, and Sanders marks the third quarterback change since the regular season began. At first, 41-year-old journeyman Joe Flacco was leading the way in Stefanski’s offense, but he was benched, leading to rookie Dillon Gabriel taking over.

BROWNS’ SHEDEUR SANDERS OFFERS BLUNT CRITIQUE OF PERFORMANCE IN NFL DEBUT

After Flacco was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals, Gabriel became the full-time starter with Sanders backing him up. It’s been a struggle for Gabriel, who went 7-of-10 passing for 68 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions Sunday before Stefanski turned to Sanders after Gabriel suffered a concussion.

Newton believes Sanders is being set up to fail, saying the Colorado product and son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders isn’t being given a fair chance to make his mark in Cleveland.

“But this is the thing that really irks me the most… because [Sanders] doesn’t get any reps,” Newton said. “Circa 2015, circa when Cam Newton was the MVP, circa when, hey, my backup for [the] majority of my career was probably the biggest blessing of my career, to have a veteran in Derek Anderson. Ron Rivera still knew, ‘We’re one play away, kid, from you not being available.’”

Sanders was blunt in his postgame press conference while discussing his performance in his first regular-season action.

“I don’t think I played good,” Sanders said. I think there’s a lot of things we need to look at during the week and go and just get comfortable with even throwing routes with Jerry [Jeudy] and throwing routes with all those guys.

“I think that was my first ball to him all year,” he continued. “But other than that, I just think overall, we just got to go next week and understand, so that we have a week to prepare stuff I like to do.”

To Newton’s point, Sanders hadn’t received any first-team reps in practice before this game. He started the season as the team’s third-string quarterback before moving to Gabriel’s backup after the Flacco trade.

Despite the poor outing, Sanders’ confidence isn’t wavering as the Browns move on to next week’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders on the road.

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“I still have the same confidence. I’m still me,” he said. “I’ll never go anywhere. You know, just going out there, seeing daylight, that’s all I needed to see how they move out there. Playing against a great defense. You got guys from the Pro Bowl out there, so it’s exciting to see. Okay, this is what it’s like? Alright. This is what it’s like? I’m excited for it. So, you know, I just got to take this one and build on it.”

Stefanski has not named a starting quarterback for the Raiders matchup, though an announcement is expected later this week.

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Nahshon Wright had just made a huge play for the Chicago Bears, and in spectacular fashion.

The fifth-year cornerback leaped high in full sprint with his hand stretched over his head to intercept a pass by Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the end zone to preserve a 10-3 Bears lead late in the second quarter.

No wild celebration followed. Instead, Wright jogged to the back of the end zone and took a knee in memory of Oakland football legend John Beam, the former football coach at Laney College who died Friday after being shot on campus a day earlier.

“He was watching over me,” Wright, who played for Beam at Laney in 2018, said after the Bears’ 19-17 victory on Sunday . “It’s crazy. He called me the night before he passed and he told me that every game he watched, I just seemed to get a pick. So I just know he was behind me today.”

Just before noon Thursday, the Oakland Police Department responded to reports of gunshots at Laney and found Beam suffering from gunshot wounds. He was transported to an area hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. At approximately 10 a.m. the next day, Beam was pronounced dead.

Oakland police arrested 27-year-old Oakland resident Cedric Irving Jr. as a suspect in the case early Friday morning at the San Leandro BART station. Irving is a former football player at Skyline High School where Beam once coached, but police said he did not play under Beam.

Irving and Beam knew each other but were not close, acting Oakland Police Chief James Beere said Friday at a news conference. Beere added that Irving isn’t a student at Laney but “was on campus for a specific reason” on Thursday.

“This was a very targeted incident,” Beere said.

On Monday, Irving was charged with murder and 10 other felonies related to Beam’s death. Alameda County Dist. Atty. Ursula Jones Dickson said during an afternoon news conference that Irving faces 50 years to life in prison if convicted.

Irving is scheduled for arraignment Tuesday, Jones Dickson said.

Beam coached football in Oakland for more than 40 years. He came to Laney as running backs coach in 2004, was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2005 and was head coach from 2012 to 2024. Upon retirement from coaching, Beam continued to serve as Laney’s athletic director, a post he had held since 2006.

For many of his players and members of the community, Beam was much more than a coach, as seen by viewers of Season 5 of the Netflix documentary series “Last Chance U,” which focused on Beam and the Eagles during the 2019 football season.

“Filming with him at Laney College gave us a firsthand look at his passion, his integrity, and his unwavering commitment to the young men he coached — and to the city of Oakland,” the show’s creator, Greg Whiteley, wrote Friday on X.

Wright told reporters that Beam was “someone I could confide in, someone that I love dearly.” He added that the coach filled a huge void for him and his brother — New Orleans Saints cornerback Rejzohn Wright, who played at Laney in 2018 and 2019 — after the death of their father in 2017.

“Beam stepped in, stepped in as a father figure, a father role,” Nahshon Wright said. “He did a lot for me and my brother, my family. He’s been there. He’s been there every step of the way, and it won’t stop. I gained an angel, for sure.”

In a scene from “Last Chance U,” Laney coach John Beam talks to player Rejzohn Wright.

(Netflix)

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Rejzohn Wright reposted a video clip of his brother’s interception and its aftermath on X and wrote: “Long live Coach beam forever with us!”

In an Oct. 19 Instagram post, Beam wrote that he was “in Chicago to watch the brothers battle” as the Bears hosted the Saints. The pride and love Beam felt toward his former players was more than evident in the photos he posted and the words he wrote.

“The Wright Way — always believe and keep grinding, never give up and believe the path will open up,” Beam wrote.

NFL fans may not have any nails left to bite as several games came down to the wire in Week 11.

Six games came within three points while eight games came within seven points. The Miami Dolphins and Carolina Panthers each won their respective games in overtime. The Dolphins did it while playing the first-ever regular-season NFL game in Madrid, Spain.

Meanwhile, Josh Allen led the Buffalo Bills to a win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a slugfest. He scored three touchdowns through the air and three touchdowns on the ground.

As of now, the Kansas City Chiefs are out of the playoff picture. The Chiefs lost to the Denver Broncos in the closing moments and dropped to 5-5 on the season.

Read below for the rest of the scores this week.

Nov. 13, 2025

• New England Patriots 27, New York Jets 14

Nov. 16, 2025

• Miami Dolphins 16, Washington Commanders 13 (OT)
• Carolina Panthers 30, Atlanta Falcons 27 (OT)
• Buffalo Bills 44, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 32
• Houston Texans 16, Tennessee Titans 13
• Chicago Bears 19, Minnesota Vikings 17
• Green Bay Packers 27, New York Giants 20
• Pittsburgh Steelers 34, Cincinnati Bengals 12

• Jacksonville Jaguars 35, Los Angeles Chargers 6
• Los Angeles Rams 21, Seattle Seahawks 19
• San Francisco 49ers 41, Arizona Cardinals 22
• Baltimore Ravens 23, Cleveland Browns 16
• Denver Broncos 22, Kansas City Chiefs 19
• Philadelphia Eagles 16, Detroit Lions 9

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Nov. 17, 2025

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