On Sunday, Shedeur Sanders Played Better than J.J. McCarthy
In fairness, Cleveland’s defense did very well. Playing the Raiders helps, too. But then the cold reality is that Shedeur Sanders had a more promising Week 12 than Minnesota’s highly-picked passer.
Yet again, J.J. McCarthy put together an awful effort, collapsing at quarterback even as the team continues to rally around him. The Vikings are now a 4-7 football team, largely due to an unsustainable effort at the game’s most important position. Is Sanders really going to outplay McCarthy as the season unfolds?
Shedeur Sanders, J.J. McCarthy, & The QB Collapse
The 23-year-old Shedeur Sanders began the season as Cleveland’s QB4. He was drafted at No. 144 in the 2025 NFL Draft.
There was then several befuddling Browns moves. Veterans Kenny Pickett alongside Joe Flacco were shown the door. Rookie 3rd-Round selection Dillon Gabriel got hurt, opening the need for a new starter. The quarterback who is relevant in no small part due to having a Hall-of-Fame father got the start for Kevin Stefanski’s team.
The numbers weren’t sensational.
Sanders stepped away from his first NFL start having gone 11/20, which works out to a 55% conversion rate. He earned 209 passing yards to stand alongside 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Working in his favor is that he took a single sack, losing just 3 yards. Toss all the relevant details into the quarterback cauldron and out comes an 87.3 passer rating.
Only once has McCarthy put together a game coming out ahead of the 87.3 passer rating: the Week 1 Bears win that feels like a lifetime ago. McCarthy had a 98.5 passer rating in that one.
More recently, J.J. McCarthy put together 12/19 passing (63.2%) for a brutal 87 yards. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass but did put up a pair of interceptions. He got sacked 5 times, losing 35 yards. The passer rating comes in at an awful 34.2, a number so poor that questions about being benched are going to continue raging.
There is, of course, some foolishness within the discussion that’s taking place.
A single game is precisely that: a single game. Go ahead and work through Tom Brady’s career. Find a lousy week and then look around the NFL for other games. Good chance some average-to-below-average quarterbacks outshined the greatest quarterback to ever play.
So, don’t go too crazy; a single game is an incredibly small sample size. Shedeur Sanders still has a long way to go.
The concerning reality is simply that McCarthy’s play (at least in some areas) has been getting worse instead of better. The Vikings are working on a difficult quarterback conundrum, one that’s getting so bad that confidence in McCarthy is waning while also seeing belief in Kevin O’Connell, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, and other parts of the organization get dragged down, too.
Furthermore, the Browns took the approach that the Vikings have been trying to take. Support Shedeur Sanders with an elite defense alongside a robust running game.
All-time great edge rusher Myles Garrett is sitting on an incomprehensibly great 18 sacks. He had 3 more on Sunday. The defender added 2 forced fumbles, 4 tackles for loss, and 6 quarterback hits. Rounding out the support was running back Quinshon Judkins, the promising runner who scored twice.
At 4-7, the Vikings are closer to a top-ten selection than a playoff spot. Goodness, a few more Sundays that play out similarly to the most recent one will involve the 3-8 Browns leapfrogging Minnesota.
Next up for J.J. McCarthy is a game against the Seattle Seahawks. Shedeur Sanders and the Browns? A contest against the 49ers. We’ll see if Minnesota’s sophomore No. 10 selection can play more promising ball than Cleveland’s rookie No. 144 selection.
