30. Cleveland Browns
An injury to Dillon Gabriel was not how anyone wanted to see Shedeur Sanders make his debut as a rookie for the Cleveland Browns, but that’s what we got in Week 11.
The Browns dropped a rather close game to the Baltimore Ravens in which Sanders got his first on-field action of the year, and he was 4-of-12 passing with an interception. The debut was bad enough that folks were doing a lot of dunking on social media about why Sanders hasn’t played up to this point, but others were coming to his defense, saying he wasn’t prepared to start for the entire week like Dillon Gabriel was.
Regardless, in the NFL, you have to be ready for your opportunity at all times, and who knows when Sanders will get his next chance? This isn’t all about Sanders, either, but the Browns are obviously in evaluation mode at the quarterback position (and plenty of other areas of the roster).
29. Las Vegas Raiders
Raiders play Monday night vs. Cowboys
The Raiders are at an immediate disadvantage this week against the Dallas Cowboys, who are coming off of a bye, but with a little bit of extra rest after playing Thursday night in Week 10, maybe it won’t be so bad. Even with the Cowboys struggling defensively this season, the Raiders are still at a talent disadvantage in their Week 11 matchup on both sides of the ball.
And that’s sort of what it feels like for the remainder of the season. The Raiders didn’t have Brock Bowers, at least not at full strength, for the majority of the first half of the season. Even with him back healthy, they haven’t been able to get anything going. This is a team that just has completely fallen flat this season, and with Geno Smith extremely hobbled after the Raiders’ loss against the Broncos last week, how much longer is this team going to be able to remain even competitive?
It felt like last week’s game against Denver was the last gasp for this Raiders team, so it’s going to take a lot for them not to come out flat against Dallas, a team getting a ton of reinforcements this week.