Fans are spreading a narrative that Sanders' oblique injury was staged so Dillon Gabriel could face less pressure

*Editor's note: This 12-part series takes an extended look into the early NFL career of Colorado legend Shedeur Sanders and the conversations by fans. View the entire series here.

I’m going to walk you through this one. Stop saying things that are completely made up. This is internet trolling at its finest. If you were a fan that tweeted this or made a video about this, the sports world needs you to take a time out. There is no sugar coating with this one. There is no polite way to say your bias is clouding your better judgement. If fans ever wonder why there is pushbac k to the Shedeur support, stuff like this is a major reason why. 

Some of the fanbase that support Shedeur are so triggered post draft, that they are scouring the internet looking for anything they might be able to call “unfair” or “an agenda” and to pounce on it. This comment is the sports mom equivalent of sitting in the stands and hearing someone say “that kid’s not very good” and getting in their face about it, on the off chance they ‘might’ be talking about your kid.

Let’s have a quick conversation about what can happen vs what can’t happen. NFL teams can’t fake injuries. Full stop. Coaches and teams have been fined back to the Stone Age for even attempting to manipulate the injury report, much less full on ‘fake’ an injury. In a business where each individual franchise makes in the neighborhood of the word “billion” no team is going to make some petty, subjective decision in the better interest of someone else because they want to, if massive monetary penalties are tied to it. GMs and personnel directors get fired for draft picks that don’t pan out as deemed a “waste of money” and you think a highly finable offense is being execu ted just to make the playing field unfair? Make that make sense. 

Historical context for the Shedeur fans, most of whom had no reason to pay attention to Cleveland before 2025. Everyone knows about the jersey with 40+ QB names on it, but do you understand the why behind some of them? Cleveland killed Tim Couch’s career because they forced him out there too soon. More recently, UCLA QB prospect Dorian Thompson-Robinson was put in a game vs the Ravens due to injury concerns with other players. Not only does he still seem shell shocked by that experience, it's apparent the DTR fiasco has influenced how Stefanski operates. 

The biggest example of the injury issue is Baker Mayfield. What most people remember is Baker had a great 2020. What they don’t so quickly remember is that he attempted to tackle a defender after throwing an interception early the next season and it almost ripped off his throwing arm. The staff gave Baker the option to play or sit. A competitor is never going to sit if given the choice. Baker went out and tried to play through it. He was completely compromised throwing the football. A month after that season ended poorly, Jimmy Haslem, Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski began conversations about Deshaun Watson. 

No team, but especially not the Browns are going to “fake an injury”. Despite the fact it is highly illegal in NFL terms, there is no benefit to faking an injury. The best part about how this narrative got legs, was to watch it unfold in real time. As has been the practice for most fans on twitter and Instagram tracking the events of training camp practice, people have become accustomed to checking the training camp tracker first put out by ESPN Cleveland. On that particular day it went something like this: 

• Why is Shedeur not running with the ones after Carolina? I was sure his performance in that game earned him first team reps (I’m with you so far)
• Why is Shedeur still not getting any reps?
• Ok the practice is almost over and still no reps? Not even first team, no reps at all? (this is where you lose me)
• This is a ruse. Shedeur played a great game and now he’s getting no reps?! The Browns are screwing him. 
• The Browns are afraid of his greatness and are sabotaging him.
• They are phasing him out. See I told you, they want him to fail.

Then after practice beat writers and reporters confirmed the injury. Was that considered an “oh ok, that would make more sense” type of response? Of course not. Instead of acknowledging that many people jumped to the wrong conclusion, they doubled down on a purely irrational concept

• The Browns faked that injury so Gabriel could play with less pressure
• The Browns are afraid of how good he is so they stacked the deck against him
• The Browns won’t allow his greatness

Then later in the day, video begins to circulate. Video of Shedeur warming up and grimacing in pain. One of those videos shows Shedeur up close taking low level short warm up throws. After one of them, he doubles over in pain and is hunched over for a minute. After those videos surfaced, were there any retractions on the idea that an NFL team ‘faked an injury’ to improve the chances for the other guy? No. The trail just went cold. It's one thing to be wrong and jump to the wrong conclusion. It's another thing entirely to suggest something that is an almost impossibility and be brazen enough to let that slide after being proven wrong. The faked injury narrative was false, intentionally wrong or conceived through irrational paranoia. Either way comments and narratives like that have no place in a football conversation.