With Pro Duck Dillon Gabriel knocked out, Shedeur Sanders gets his chance

They play for the Cleveland Browns, a downtrodden, woeful franchise that's employed 42 starting quarterbacks since 1999, mired in last place and 5-22 over the last two seasons.

In the football business it's Siberia and the Bad News Bears, a screaming, spitting sports talk radio world where The Obvious Solution is always the quarterback on the bench.

On Sunday Browns fans, or at least a large swath of them, got their wish when rookie starter Dillon Gabriel, the former Heisman Trophy finalist and Oregon Duck, was sidelined with a concussion-- not the concussion part, but the fact that Shedeur Sanders started the second half.

The Colorado Buffalo and son of an NFL Hall of Famer took over against Baltimore, the team that left town. Cleveland led 16-10 at the break

He was sacked on his third snap. His first four drives went punt, interception, punt, punt, and those were followed by two more punts and a turnover on downs in the fourth quarter. For the game he was 4-16 passing for 47 yards, sacked twice, picked off once, scoreless.

In the first half Gabriel had gone 7-10 for 68 yards, marginally better. It turns out the Browns aren't any good no matter who is at quarterback, a team that needs a new culture and help everywhere.

The message board outrage machine will go ballistic today defending one quarterback and defaming the other, but all that reflects is the human obsession for oversimplification and the pursuit of easy solutions.

These are two inexperienced quarterbacks with limitations, on a franchise that needs to be rewired and rebuilt from the ground up. Both were wonderful college passers. Neither is ready to make the playoffs in the NFL and at 2-8, their team isn't either. Fire everybody and start over.

Next year Cleveland gets another last place schedule and chances are in April, they'll draft a new savior. Without help on the offensive line and a defense that can limit big plays and red-zone touchdowns, without a transformation of culture, the result will be the same.

Neither Gabriel or Sanders are the problem or the solution. They're just a couple of hard-working young guys hired by an impossible, broken company.