The Cleveland Browns head into Week 12 of the 2025 NFL regular season with yet another major change. So far this season, the Browns have started QB Joe Flacco for four games before turning to QB Dillon
Gabriel. Now, due to Gabriel’s injury, QB Shedeur Sanders will take the helm and try to do something that hasn’t been done in 30 years, despite a report that HC Kevin Stefanski did not plan to play him at all this year .
Oh yeah, and Cleveland switched offensive playcallers during their Week 9 bye.
A lot of changes.
The Browns snap counts on offense could also see some changes in Week 12, something we already saw in Week 11 when Sanders came in. WR Gage Larvadain, who has seen most of his snaps come on special teams, had his only four snaps on offense with Sanders late in the game last week. OC Tommy Rees noted that Sanders has familiarity with a lot of the rookies:
While Judkins, Sampson and Fannin were already getting a lot of snaps, it will be interesting if Sampson takes more of Jerome Ford’s work and if Fannin becomes the top tight end in the group. After that, WR Isaiah Bond and TE Brenden Bates could see increased roles, along with Larvadain, due to Sanders’ comfort with throwing to those backups.
For most teams, playing the best players that fit the quarterback tends to be the priority. Sanders has not had the chance to get timing down with WRs Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman, as well as TE David Njoku so he may find more success with the younger weapons on the Browns roster.
