Chicago Bears cornerback Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and the rest of the defense wanted to prove a point to Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders during Sunday’s 31-3 victory. Chicago made it miserable on the fifth-round pick in his fourth NFL start, forcing Sanders into three interceptions and notching five sacks during his worst outing of the season.
“It’s about time he ran into some problems,” Gardner-Johnson said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s a great young player. They’re a great young group that’s playing hard, physical. He’s just going against a lot of vets that have something to play for. Sometimes you gotta teach a rookie how to stay in a rookie’s place.”
Sanders finished 18-of-35 for 177 yards.
“They had a great defensive scheme,” Sanders said. “I enjoyed playing against them. I enjoyed playing in that. It was definitely a little challenge, so I look forward to learning from that. And look forward to understanding exactly how things was on film and being able to learn from it.”
Two of Sanders’ three giveaways came in the third quarter, the second on a well-placed end zone toss to Jerry Jeudy, who had the football wrestled away by Jaylon Johnson. The pass hit Jeudy in the chest, but he couldn’t hold on.
“You get what you emphasize,” Johnson said. “Every day we emphasize the ball.”
Chicago scored 17 points off of Sanders’ second-half mistakes.
“He’s a young player that is making progress, like we’ve talked about all week,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. “I see it in games. I get to see it in practice. There’s going to be ups and downs to young players, particularly the quarterback position. So we’ll learn from it, and we’ll be better next week.”
Stefanski named Sanders the Browns’ starter the rest of the season last week. Sanders showcased improvement week-to-week before Sunday’s performance, including a 364-yard, three-touchdown stat line against the Tennessee Titans. He is 1-3 as a starter since Dillon Gabriel suffered a concussion in Week 11 against the Baltimore Ravens. Sanders’ rating of 30.3 against the Bears was his lowest in 2025.
“In every situation, it’s always going to be things you want to work on and get better,” Sanders. “I think that’s where I’m heading. I’m in the learning and understanding phase of his time and how things are.”
