On the same day the Browns officially benched Joe Flacco for rookie Dillon Gabriel, all eyes were on the team's quarterback room. That included Shedeur Sanders, the rookie who remains third on the depth chart but never strays far from a headline.
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Sanders met with reporters in the locker room. He smiled. He moved his mouth. He didn't say a single word.
Safe to say Shedeur Sanders was literally speechless today in the locker room
(via @Spencito_)pic.twitter.com/RkelEXVrjD
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) October 1, 2025
It's not clear whether miming responses meets the NFL's media policy, wrote Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio. In previous cases, the league has taken the position that players only need to make themselves available for questions, not necessarily answer them. Marshawn Lynch turned that loophole into a running joke years ago with his famous "I'm just here so I don't get fined."
Why Sanders chose silence is anyone's guess. He may not have wanted to recite the standard depth-chart script. He might have been avoiding questions about his recent comments suggesting he's more than ready to play and better than some quarterbacks currently starting.
There's also the lingering Ravens angle. Earlier this year, Sanders reportedly told Baltimore he didn't want to be drafted by them. If that had happened, he might be starting this week as Lamar Jackson's backup instead of Cooper Rush. Reporters almost certainly would have asked about that.
Whatever the reason, Sanders made a splash without uttering a word. His silent press availability overshadowed Gabriel's big day, added another wrinkle to Cleveland's quarterback storyline, and gave the NFL media policy department something to think about.
It wasn't quite Marshawn-level performance art, but it was close.
