Shedeur Sanders, Jalen Hurts and a trip worth taking

PHILADELPHIA — For most of this preseason, Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel has been the straight man for fellow rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

Even though Gabriel was drafted in the third round and Sanders in the fifth, and even though Gabriel is listed ahead of Sanders on the Browns depth chart, Sanders has been the Browns rookie headliner since the NFL draft in April. Sanders’ supporters have roasted Gabriel, who played at Oregon, for having been drafted ahead of him. After Sanders’ electric debut Aug. 8 against the Carolina Panthers, the vitriol intensified.

Gabriel, struggling with a strained hamstring, seemed to have had enough on Saturday. After making a largely successful debut against Philadelphia, Gabriel, perhaps unwittingly, threw fuel on the competitive fire.

During an in-game television interview, Gabriel, asked how he had tuned out the noise surrounding the Browns quarterback competition, said: “There’s entertainers and there’s competitors, and I totally understand that. But my job is to compete.”

His comments appeared to be a shot at Sanders, who — along with his father, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders — dominated the spotlight in college football for the last two years. (Two years ago, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning made a similar comment about Coach Prime when he told his team, “They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins, there’s a difference, this game isn’t going to be played in Hollywood, it’s going to be played in the grass.”)

After Saturday’s game, when Gabriel was pressed about his comments, he said he was not referring to Shedeur Sanders but to the media.

“All you in this room are entertainers, and you have a job to do and I respect that,” Gabriel said. “I’m a competitor, so I have a job to do as well.”

Pressed for clarification, Gabriel said, “Entertainers are you all; competitor, that’s what I am, and all my teammates we both have jobs to do.”

My sense of the entire affair is that Gabriel is clearly feeling the pressure of battling Sanders.

In Gabriel’s debut, he was good — very good in spots. But in Sanders’ debut, he was electric — indeed, entertaining.

Sanders came close to being intercepted but was not. Gabriel was not so fortunate. On the first play of the second quarter, Gabriel threw an ill-advised pass into coverage and the interception was returned 75 yards for a touchdown. Two series later, Gabriel fumbled a handoff and Philadelphia scored in seven plays.

“Not all interceptions are created equal, but we can’t do that as a football team,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said.

We expected to see Sanders against the Eagles. After a great debut against the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, there was a hunger to see Sanders make a second start and have another great game.

On Aug. 13, however, Sanders injured his oblique muscle during a passing drill in practice. Still, with a solid performance this week against the Los Angeles Rams (Saturday, 1 p.m. ET), Sanders could very well end up as the Browns’ backup quarterback.

Stefanski refused to be pushed into a commitment. “I’m not going to compare our players, other to say that I’m pleased with both those guys and where they are in their progression,” he said.

Last week was hardly a lost week for Sanders. In fact, it may have been one of the most significant weeks of Sanders’ young professional career because he was forced to do something he has not done probably since pee wee football. He was forced to sit and watch.

Beyond that, the most important part of the week was that Sanders connected with Jalen Hurts, the Eagles’ veteran quarterback and the MVP of Super Bowl LIX.

Hurts is the mentor that Sanders needs at this point of his career. Wisely, Sanders sought out Hurts during that Aug. 13 practice. The two had a lengthy conversation and after they finished Hurts gave Sanders a ride back to the locker room in a golf cart.

Hurts explained that he was simply trying to help a young Brother out.

“He came to me and just wanted to talk,” Hurts said. “I’m always there, I said earlier, giving my perspective on what I see and how I’ve gone about things.”

He added, “Ultimately, it takes a great deal of patience and hard work and a sense of resilience. You gotta want it. You gotta want it. And so, I’m supporting him from where I am and wishing him nothing but the best with this opportunity.”

I filter the relationship between Sanders and Hurts through the prism of the long, hard, often lonely road traveled by African American quarterbacks. In those early days, Black quarterbacks had to uplift each other, support each other, reaffirm each other. Marlin Briscoe uplifted James Harris. Harris uplifted Warren Moon, who uplifted the generation of Michael Vick, who uplifted the generation of Cam Newton, who uplifted the generation of Lamar Jackson and Hurts. Now Hurts is uplifting the generation of Sanders, a generation that may or may not be aware of its history.

Last year, Vick produced an award-winning documentary — The Evolution of the Black Quarterback — which traced the history of Black quarterbacks. Hurts was part of the documentary and made it clear that he knows the history and has an obligation to mentor a new generation. A large part of that history involves being doubted, marginalized and second-guessed.

Among other things, Hurts said his role is to make those who follow him, “understand that success depends not on hype but on discipline and determination and ultimately a certain standard for yourself and how you want to do it.”

Because he was drafted lower than he expected, Sanders may think that he has a mountain to climb. Hurts can tell Sanders that he has no idea what a steep mountain looks like.

Hurts has clawed his way back from a major setback in college (losing his starting job at Alabama) to a chilly reception when the Eagles drafted him. Even now in conversations, Hurts routinely takes a backseat to nearly every elite signal caller in the NFL.

Hurts does not fight back with a PR machine. He wins. As he explained after the Eagles won the NFC championship last January: “I don’t play the game for stats. I don’t play the game for numbers, any statistical approval from anyone else. Winning and success is defined by that particular individual; it’s all relative to that person and what I define it as winning. And so, my No. 1 goal is to always come out and win. The standard is to win.”

Some will argue that kinship among African Americans in general, Black quarterbacks in particular, is no longer necessary.

Last season 15 of the 32 starters at quarterback in the NFL were African Americans. The number may increase this season. But that kind of thinking — letting down one’s guard after progress is made — is trap thinking. Thinking that progress is permanent and that hard-won gains cannot be reversed is wrong-headed. We’re seeing the folly of this line of thinking in real time as history is being whitewashed, institutions threatened, and rights removed.

Hurts reminded us this week about the power of mentorship and kinship. In that 30-minute conversation last week, Hurts showered a young Black quarterback — who may not have thought he needed it — with encouragement, love and respect.

I will remember Cleveland’s otherwise meaningless preseason week in Philadelphia as the moment that may have opened Sanders’ eyes to a tradition of resilience, resistance and fortitude that has been a linchpin in the evolution of Black quarterbacks.

For Sanders, competitor and entertainer, I’d say the interlude to Philly was a trip worth taking.