After a rough start to the season (1-3), the Cleveland Browns finally made some changes. They benched Joe Flacco and announced Dillon Gabriel as their new starter. Although it was a good move for the team, a series of events related to this change led to an unexpected reaction from Shedeur Sanders, who is still third on the depth chart. Upon being asked about his feelings regarding the depth chart, he went speechless, literally. 

Shedeur went on to perform a mime act when reporters asked questions about the depth chart. Instead of answering the questions, he acted as if he were answering them. It looked like he was talking with the volume button turned off. But ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky didn’t take it lightly and criticized the QB. “I actually don’t think there is a time and place to act like that as a quarterback,”  Orlvosky said. Now, after things have flared up, both Deion Sanders, Shedeur’s father, and Terrell Owens, one of the greatest receivers of all time, expressed their views. 

When the former NBA player Stephen Jackson posted his reaction on Orlovsky through an Instagram video on All the Smoke channel, Owens and Sanders jumped in to have their say. A fan tried to defend Dan, and Owens commented, “But Dan wasn’t getting asked any questions because he didn’t have the success that Sheduer has had. I only know Dan because he ran out of the back of the end zone.” 

It’s clear that Owens didn’t like what Orlovsky said about Shedeur. But he didn’t stop at comparing  Shedeur’s success with Orlovsky; he went even further. In his comment, Owens referred to Orlovsky’s infamous incident back in 2008, when he ran out of the back of the end zone, resulting in a safety and a two-point safety award to the Vikings. 

On the other hand, Shedeur’s father had a simple and humble comment on the video “Amen”. Deion’s humble comment served to both support what Stephen said and maintain a calm atmosphere, rather than escalating the situation. Deion had earlier addressed Shedeur’s mime act and wrote, “Good 1 son. You did that,” including several crying laughing emojis on social media. While Owens chose to go all out on Orlovsky, Deion chose to keep things simple. 

However, it was not only Owens who compared Orlovsky’s limited success with Shedeur. Even Stephen Jackson thrashed Orlovsky and supported Sheduer in the Instagram video. “Success does not have a dress code, bro. Nope, you can’t tell somebody what success looks like, especially you (Dan Orlovsky) haven’t had success in that space”. However, 

All of this started with Shedeur’s mime act, and many might see it as Shedeur showing his disappointment with still being number three; that’s not the case.

Shedeur Sanders’ logic behind the mime act 

According to senior NFL insider Adam Schefter, Shedeur’s decision to mime instead of speaking was a response to ESPN analyst Rex Ryan’s criticism of Shedeur. When Shedeur said he is capable of doing better than many QBs currently playing in the NFL. Ryan criticized Shedeur during his appearance on the Get Up panel.

“Something’s missing with this kid. This kid talks, and he runs his mouth. Like he said, ‘I can be a starting quarterback’ with his arms crossed like this. Get your ass in the front row and study and do all that. If I know, the whole league knows. Quit being an embarrassment that way. You’ve got the talent to be the quarterback; you should be. You should be embarrassed that you’re not the quarterback now.” Shedeur’s decision not to run his mouth this time might be his response to Ryan’s mention about Shedeur talking big.

While some have liked Shedeur’s response and others have criticized it, it has surely brought him into the spotlight. Although he will not play this Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings, it will be interesting to see whether Shedeur lives up to his words when he gets the chance, or all the criticism against him will flare up again.