Tanya Ray Fox, a former FS1 editor, just shook the room with her latest video on why Kevin Stefanski didn’t develop Shedeur Sanders with the first team.
She pushed back on the idea floating around that the Browns simply “don’t have time” to bring a rookie quarterback along. To her, that excuse doesn’t hold.
She pointed straight at the reps Shedeur Sanders never got, arguing Cleveland should’ve prepped him like a real QB1 instead of keeping him on the sidelines. And she wasn’t shy about calling out the double standard either. Dillon Gabriel is a rookie too, yet he’s getting every chance.
Tanya Ray Fox on Shedeur Sanders’ Preparation
Tanya Ray Fox pointed straight at the Browns’ decision-making, calling out how “they put themselves in a very difficult situation by trading their veteran quarterback to the division rival Bengals.”
In her view, everything spiraled from that moment, because the original plan was simple: Joe Flacco as QB1, Dillon Gabriel as QB2, and Shedeur Sanders developing patiently behind both. But as she explained, “Eventually, they decide to trade Joe Flacco and now their starter is a rookie, and their backup is a rookie.”
She made it clear that this isn’t a normal scenario you can shrug off. “In unique situations you have to take unique approaches,” she said, cutting right through the excuses.
And she wasn’t exaggerating the stakes either. “You cannot have a rookie backup to another rookie, an undersized rookie in that. A rookie who has injury issues at that and not have them prepared to start in an NFL game against the Division Rivals and the Ravens.”
That was her biggest point: the Browns didn’t adjust their preparation even though the entire depth chart shifted beneath them.
Tanya kept circling back to how obvious this problem was weeks ago. “Joe Flacco has been gone and it’s been obvious you’re gonna have to rely on two rookies,” she added.
To her, the Browns’ refusal to shift their coaching approach wasn’t an accident. It was a pattern. And in her eyes, that pattern is now putting Shedeur Sanders in a position no rookie quarterback should ever be in.
She also referred to the part that’s now going viral: Shedeur Sanders isn’t just underprepared, he’s being positioned to fail.
“Being set up to fail does not have to be a conspiracy. It can just be an aptitude. Whether you think it’s on purpose or it’s an aptitude, either way, the results is the same, which is Shedeur not getting an opportunity to be ready to an NFL starter because they have not given him those reps,” claimed Tanya.
She wasn’t attacking anyone personally; she was pointing at a coaching failure that anyone watching closely could see.
Then Tanya made a comparison that snapped everything into focus. She said, “It’s all good to not give the backup quarterback reps because there are veteran quarterbacks who can do that,” and in a normal situation, she’d be right.
But this isn’t that. And she followed up with the punchline: “It’s another thing entirely to not do that with a fellow rookie who is backing up your injury-prone undersized starter,” adding, “That is bad coaching, and bad football, and bad preparation outright. And to undermine it by saying that the NFL teams don’t ‘develop quarterbacks in the middle of the season’ as if the Browns have a choice.”
According to Tanya, choice is the one thing Cleveland doesn’t have anymore. “They traded away their veteran. They don’t have a choice but to continue to develop both these quarterbacks in tandem because that’s the situation they put themselves,” she explained. And in her mind, that pressure should’ve pushed the Browns to invest heavily in Shedeur Sanders’ readiness.
But that’s not what she’s seeing. Instead, she believes the team isn’t putting in the effort required to protect its future.
“They’re not taking Shedeur, or his career, or his position seriously or their success for that matter. And that’s not a surprise for the Browns. That’s not a conspiracy. That’s what we’ve seen from the Cleveland Browns over and over again, which is why… it was so easy for people to see it coming.”
And with that, Tanya Ray Fox didn’t just critique the situation. She predicted exactly where it leads. Now the question is whether Cleveland finally listens before it’s too late.