PTI - What are the Browns plans for Shedeur Sanders?

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon discuss what the future plans could be for Shedeur Sanders and the Browns. Also, they react to Cowboys win over the Raiders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon-Toney. A Swedish man said a Guinness World Record by shoving 81 matches into his nostrils. I'm Tony Coronizer.

I've never tried matches, but I can do two toothbrushes. I can do that. I wonder how we managed to replace a Florida man with a Swedish man. Well, I'm sure it's true. I just wonder if the matches were lit. Okay. That would make it different. The matches were lit.

I hope not. That'll be something. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Lane Kiffin has a decision to make. James Franklin takes over at Virginia Tech, and Jeff Saturday joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with last night's Monday night game in which the Dallas Cowboys went on the road and throttle the Las Vegas Raiders. It seemed the Raiders never threatened the end zone. The Raiders are now 2 and 8 in Pete Carroll's first year there and are headed for their fourth straight losing season.

Well, ma'am, what do you make of Pete Carroll's Raiders so far? far and going forward. Tony, they're not even Pete Carroll's Raiders to me. Pete Carroll's a guy who went there to try to save them like a line of other coaches. Not Pete Carroll's Raiders. I don't judge Pete Carroll's career by the Raiders. I don't even associate Pete Carroll's career with the Raiders. The Raiders are irrelevant.

They've been irrelevant for a long time. They're even more irrelevant than the Cowboys who are quickly becoming irrelevant because nobody under 48, 50 years old can't remember when the Cowboys were any good. in the postseason. So I know people could think their viewerships skyrocket because the Raiders and the Cowboys. These are two irrelevant teams

and particularly the Raiders right now who star rookie running back carried like six times for seven yards or seven times to six yards. I forget. And you look at this and you go, okay, they're on. People can remember of a certain age when they mattered.

They don't matter now. Yeah, I'm not going to disagree with most of that. The Raiders at the moment are awful. Pete Carroll is a great coach and he can't do anything with them. They're on their way to their 23rd consecutive season without a playoff win, which is a remarkable. Considering what the Raiders were, that's a remarkable number there. They're in the bottom of the bowl with the Jets and with the Browns and with the Titans and with the Saints. Their quarterback, Gino Smith through 10 games, has 12 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions. He's got a QBR or something like 32 and the only two people who's ahead of a rookies, Cam Ward and Dylan Gabriel. He's

behind Justin Fields who just lost his job, right? The only thing the Raiders do is they make celebrity hires. You tell me, Tom Brady is an owner. What is his impact? Chip Kelly, what is his impact? What is Pete Carroll's impact? So here's where we will agree. Mark Davis is not Al Davis. This is not the 70s and it's not the 80s. And they are a lost team. So I'll take 10 seconds and talk about the Cowboys. They were impressive last night except against a bad team. Prescott throwing to the two, to CD Lamb and who's the other guy, George Pickett. You know, that is formidable.

So that's why today everybody's talking about, will they make the playoffs? No, because they've got to go six and one. And their next three games are Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Detroit. So no, they're not. We can't move quickly enough off this to Lane Kiffin's future. ESPN reports that Ole Miss has asked Kiffin to decide

whether he'll stay or go by this. This weekend. Kiffin told Pat McAfee today, there's been no ultimatum, but both Florida and LSU have reportedly flown Kiffin's family members in for visits the last two days. Tony would Ole Miss be right or smart to impose the deadline on the coach that's led them to a 10 and one record now. So in situations like this where the dynamic exists like this, almost all the power rests with the coach. Almost none of the power rests with the school. The school is obliged to pay the coach the money they agreed to pay him when they offered it to him and he signed a contract, right? That's, other than that, they can just go pound sand as far as I'm concerned. If they want Kiffin to stay, they've got to do what they would do with a quarterback or a tackle or a DB.

They have to tear up the existing deal and give them more money. They have to show them more money, you know, and see if that's going to keep them. To answer the question directly, I think they're sort of right. It's within their rights to do this. But at that point, if Lane Kiffin calls their bluff, are they going to fire him? I don't think they're going to fire him. Lane Kiffin has, at that school at Ole Miss, the last five or the last six years, he's had double-digit wins. That equals the entire amount in the previous 50 years for that school.

You're not going to fire him. It's just that simple. So what it feels like, Mike, is if there is an ultimatum on any level, you're cutting off your nose despite your face. Well, there is no rational ultimatum. Tony, here's a couple of things. One, you would ask yourself, if you're looking at this from the outside or if you're a trustee there or something,

is money going to keep Lane Kiffin? Is there an amount of money that is going to keep Lane Kiffin from wandering off to Florida or LSU? and the answer probably is no because so many coaches look at this as a guy who left Notre Dame not too long ago to go to LSU and they say stupid stuff like I can't win here

so I'm going to go there where I can win. Well, here's the problem with that. Lane Kiffin's going to be in the playoff. Now, Mississippi's going to be in the playoff. LSU is not going to be in the playoff. Florida's not going to be in the playoff. So the question for Lane Kiffin is, Wow, with the portal being what it is and cash money reining down on players from whatever source being what it is, can I win here?

Can I stay at Ole Miss and can I win here or is there an advantage elsewhere? That's what this is going to come down to. I think he's going to go somewhere else because there are better football schools than they have more money. So I think Ole Miss is going to have nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory, not a real victory. Let's stick with college football and coaches. The big news is someone who actually took a new job and is not letting his family fly around the country on private jets to look at possible coaching sites.

James Franklin took the open job at Virginia Tech and in so doing allowed Penn State to reportedly recoup 40 of the $49 million buyout they owed him. Wilbon, what are your expectations for James Franklin at Virginia Tech? I expect him to return tech to where tech was during Frankie Beamer time. I expect Franklin,

to get them up toward double-digit wins. It doesn't mean I think they're going to win a national championship. And when people outside of this region, meaning the region you and I live in, they don't understand that they may not understand, probably don't. There's an enormous overlap between Penn State and Virginia Tech. The kids they recruit, the appeal they have, it's a large region that doesn't really have defined lines. but he knows, Franklin knows the region. He worked at Maryland, I think twice.

He's recruited the area. It seems like it's a great fit to me. Franklin and Virginia Tech, a much better fit than him trying to go off to LSU or Florida or someplace. No, he knows this area. He knows the high schools. He knows all about what goes on between at one end, the southwestern end of it Virginia Tech and the northeastern end of it Penn State. And this seems like

a good hire. Yeah, I don't disagree with that at all. I mean, the first thing you have to remember is that the ACC is an easier conference to win than the Big Ten. Yeah. It's much easier. The ACC, right now, the college football ranking committee thinks so little of the ACC that their top ranked school isn't, they don't even want them in the playoffs. So that is a winnable conference right now. At the moment, schools leading or Georgia Tech in Virginia, and I'll pause for a second while you giggle. The second thing is, and you're right to bring up Frank Beamer, they were a nationally ranked school when he was there. He went to 23 bowl games when bowl games meant something. He was in a period of time between 1999 and 2011, nine of those 12 years, he had his team at some

point in the top 10 nationally. So you can win at Virginia Tech. The question is, can Franklin win at Virginia Tech? He could not win it. at the big 10. He banged his head on the ceiling. He was like four and 21 against top 10 ranked teams. But, Mike, he's not going to meet top 10 ranked teams as often. So yes, it is a good fit. And maybe by the end of next year, if he takes some Penn State players with him, we're going to be talking about James Franklin and Bill Belichick in the ACC. Let's take a break. Still to come, Shador Sanders got no snaps with his first team offensive line before Sunday, and we will ask Jeff Saturday, how big a deal that is.

And Jeff loves it. He goes, Tush Push. We're going to ask him what he thought of the Ravens fake Tush Push. Do you think that Lane Kippen is going to go to either Florida or LSU? I do. Do you? Probably, but supposedly wins a national championship in Mississippi. Oh, then he can definitely go if he wants to. You know.

Part of the interruption is presented by Crown Royal. Please drink responsibly. Part of Happy Hour. You are watching Part of the Interruption, presented by Crown Royal, part of Happy Hour. Let's dig into the NFL trenches with our great friend ESPN NFL analyst, Jeff Saturday. Jeff, you talked last week about the importance of Lane Johnson to the Eagles line. There are some numbers here. There are 120 and 62 and 1 when he plays.

They're 15 and 24 when he doesn't. That's a stark difference. He'll be out four to six weeks with a foot injury. How does the absence of a player like Johnson change things for the rest of the people on the line? Oh, it's massive. I mean, first of all, let me put this in perspective for everybody at home. If you had the Eagles at 1 in the NFC and the Rams at 2, you would move the Rams above the Eagles because of this injury. This is like a three-point swing per game, in my opinion.

That's how good Lane Johnson is. This guy is a guy that the ball is snapped. You let him go block whatever the edge is, and you don't concern yourself with whatever's going to happen because he's going to have dudes locked up and they ain't going anywhere. Go back and watch what he did against Hutch most of the game and that Detroit game. He is an absolute beast. That's how good this player is. But now let's take it a step further. Communication between the guard, the center, even the quarterback, when blitzes start to come or you start to see pressure or safety start to tilt or linebackers lineup, all the communication. and the expectations of how things are going to be blocked when you've got a guy like Lane Johnson who's been there for that long, all that communication has to be verbalized. It can't just be a nod or a bump or whatever.

Everything has to be verbalized, and it makes it much more difficult and cumbersome. This is a big loss for the Eagles. I am praying he gets back in four weeks, not six. I love offensive linemen. He's one I love to watch, and I hate that he's been injured. We're going to go from the proven commodity

that is Lane Johnson, to the unproven of Shadour Sanders, who, Jeff, when I heard he had not received one snap with the first team in practice, I went nuts, and it seemed like coaching malpractice. But then again, I realized that most guys don't get those reps, but take the viewer inside how different it is and how important it is to get reps with the first team if you're the quarterback. This is unbelievable. And I'll take it a step further. This isn't just coaching malpractice because honestly, Stefansky in this group is kind of in a bad position, right? You got Dylan Gabriel, who's a rookie,

in front of Shador, who's a rookie? So they both need reps, right? So if you're trying to get Dylan ready for the game, you can't have Shador taking reps from them. This should have been handled in pre-s. If you knew you were going to get rid of Kenny Pickett and you knew you were going to get rid of Joe Flacco, then you've got to have a better plan in place of what this looks like.

Let me just explain to everybody how bad. when you, when Shador walked out there, the offensive line had never heard his cadence. That's how the play starts, people. The cadence starts everything. When you don't even know the voice inflection of the cadence, that means the offensive line are literally waiting and hesitating until they either can see the ball snapped or until they feel his cadence change until they know the ball. It is absolute, and split seconds matter. in our game. And, you know, the defense getting jumps off the ball, it is an absolute disaster. And anybody who's judging Chador on his performance, you're mocking yourself, man.

I mean, listen, the Baltimore Ravens blitz the daylights out of them. I know him. If they don't know his cadence, he dang sure don't know the answers to the test on what to do against the blitz. So let's bring it and make him look as bad. And he still made some good throws when he's protected. Do not judge this man, whether you think he was really good or really bad. on 16 snaps of chaos because that's what he was thrown into. Man, that is great perspective. We got to talk about this Mark Andrews play

where he takes an apparent push snap and goes for a touchdown. All right, let's go inside the huddle for a second. You're the center. When this play comes in, that Mark Andrews is going to take the direct snap and go right, you're thinking what?

Oh, you love it, right? He's a big physical guy. You know he's going to take the snap. Lamar ain't going to be a tush push guy, right? It's always going to be somebody that's protected and take shots. So it's going to be Andrews. He's handled the ball. He's got good hands. You're working the QB Center Exchange. They're working on that as the week getting ready for it. So that part is taking care of. This is why I love the tush push. Because think about this. Think about this when the Eagles incorporate this, when Baltimore, you had Lamar basically in the

option position behind him. So as he reverses out, he could have picked. it with a lead blocker with Lamar going to his left, but instead he reverses out. They kept, they kicked the edge out. He splits between tackle and kick block into the house. Ain't nothing better. Go ahead and load up in there. Now I'm going to make you look silly if you can't stop me in the middle or on the edges. I love that.

I thought it was a huge. It was a gutsy call by Todd and the, and the Ravens at the moment. Fourth and one tied up game. Huge play, huge call. Congrats to Andrews for the TD, baby. I loved it. Completely brilliant. Completely brilliant.

The moment you saw it, you said this is absolutely brilliant. Oh, we get you out of here on this. Sam Darnold threw four picks against the Rams linebacker. I hope I get this name right. Ernest Johnson, the fourth, said, quote, he's our quarterback. We've got his back. And if you've got anything to say, quite frankly, and then he used an expletive,

and everybody knows what that expletive is. But if you were Donald's teammate, you were out there with him when he threw four, would you have any doubts? No, listen, the Rams have kind of had his number. This is not uncommon for a lot of quarterback struggle against certain defenses, right? Like, I think about my time at the Colts. For whatever reason, the Chargers were always a tough matchup for us, right?

Their DBs were kind of long-ranging guys. You know, they played a different type of press. You know, the pressure they brought in their three, four was a little bit different. So you can't be prepared. you're not going to be as good against every defense. Some defense is going to have a little bit, it make it more difficult. He didn't play his best game, but within that, he gave them a shot at the end for a long field goal on the drive. So if you're the Seahawks, you walk away, disappointing the loss, knowing you can't play worse on offense

and you still had a chance with four turnovers to beat the Rams. That's a big thing. You are not backing off of Sam Donald if you're a Seahawk, bro. We are all, we are gas pedal down. Let's make a move. We'll see these guys again. Love that. That's good to know.

Yeah, they were five feet away from winning. It's wide right by five feet. Jeff, as always, great pleasure. Thank you, Jeff. Voice of Reason. Love you, fellas. See all next week. Jeff Saturday.

Voice of Reason. Let's take one last break. Still has to come, Janus is the latest NBA star to go out. And four college bluebloods meet in Madison Square Garden. The world's most famous arena. Tonight, I used to go to this. all the time. I think Jeff's defense of an explanation of Shador Sanders is much needed.

Much needed. Part in the interruption is presented by Crown Royal. Please drink responsibly. Part of Happy Hour. Happy time, people. Happy 22nd birthday, Jalen Duren. Duren is a 610 starting center of the surging Detroit Pistons, a team basically of unknowns other than Cade Cunningham.

Duren is averaging 20.3 points and 12.3 rebounds, which is fourth in the league. Duren played one year of college ball at Memphis for Penny Hardaway, and then was drafted 13th overall in the 2012 draft by Charlotte. A three-way draft night deal, including the Knicks, sent Duren to the Pistons. This is Duren's fourth year in the league, and he's shooting 67.4% from the field. Wow. Pistons are 12 and 2, having won 10 straight games. Can you name all five starters on the Pistons? Nobody outside the 3-13 can. Tony, the Pistons are really good.

They had a chance to break through in the playoffs last year, a tough and even controversial game one, loss of Knicks. The Pistons are not to be tripled with, and Cleveland and the Knicks and Milwaukee know that already. Happy anniversary, Phil Dawson. On this day, 18 years ago, the Brown's veteran kicker booted a final play, game-time, 51-yard field goal

against the Baltimore Ravens that was initially ruled no good by the officials. While the kick wasn't legally reviewable under the rules, the refs snuck a peek at the replay on the Jumbotron and made the right call, sending the game into overtime where the Browns would win on another Dawson field goal. The kick in question hit the left upright, then the support post just beyond the crossbar, before bouncing back onto the field of play. The next season brought a new rule allowing kicks to be reviewed called the Phil Dawson rule.

I'm always for the officials getting it right. I'm never for officials wearing white pants. And I'm always for those beautiful uniforms the Browns wore this last Sunday. It's classic. Jim Brown could have been in those uniforms. Can't people ever get it right? Call me, I'll get it right for you. Happy Trails Janice onto Tocompo.

The Buckstar left last night's loss to the calves with a groin strain. He will have an MRI. Head coach Doc Rivers said after the game, quote, didn't look great. I can tell you that. Janice joins a long list of injured stars that includes Victor Wembeyanma, who's out for a few weeks with a calf strain, John Morant, who's out for two weeks with the same thing, and 20 other players making more than $30 million.

30 million each. And by the way, add to that, not a star for 30 million, but Stefan Castle of the young, studly spurs, he's out and will be re-evaluated in a couple of weeks. man, I mean, can we just start the season of Christmas and maybe avoid the November injuries that we have every year now? Goodness. Let's go to the big finish.

Let's do it. Your boy, Paul George, at nine points and 70 rebounds in his return against the Clippers. Your thoughts? Yeah, the Sixers won, and man, the Clippers falling and can't get up, and they're awfully old. LeBron says he will not be on the 28 Olympic team. Steph Curry says he highly doubts he will be.

You love the two of them on the Olympic. team. So your reaction is what? I do. And they won the gold medal with Kevin Durant last time. But they'll both be in their 40s and it's time. Let younger players play in that. It's time. It's all right. Aaron Rogers didn't practice today but

wants to play against the Bears on Sunday. Does that make sense? He's not going to have surgery apparently. I want Aaron Rogers under center for the Steelers when they get to Soldier Field Sunday. That's what I want. Michigan State, Kentucky, Kansas Duke tonight.

in Madison Square Garden. You intrigued? Sure. I mean, there's no football on tonight. I would love to watch this, and I will. Last one, the U.S. men's soccer team faces Uruguay in a friendly in Tampa tonight. Do you find that significant? Yes, you look at the summer where World Cup's coming in, what, seven, eight months. The measuring of ourselves against Uruguay is a big deal, so, yeah.

We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornheiser, and I'm glad what you want with Aaron Rogers. I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knucklehead. PTII.