Deion Sanders Jr. sets the record straight on Shedeur’s back injury amid Kevin Stefanski’s refusal to name Coach Prime’s son as Browns QB1

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski is still reluctant to start Shedeur Sanders, even though he teased him after the bye week during a live broadcast. Such reluctance, however, can be attributed to a back injury, which Deion Sanders Jr. confirmed his brother was suffering from before the Week 8 game against the New England Patriots in a video Thursday:

“His back was looked at all last week. It was actually a problem.”

This development occurred amid concerns about the nature and timing of Sanders’ injury announcement. This happened on Saturday, something Anthony Lima of 92.3 The Fan took offense to given the quarterback’s historical media savvy:

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Stefanski, meanwhile, isn’t thinking about a quarterback change, at least in the short term. And while the continued blocking has sparked plenty of outrage, one person who believes otherwise is ESPN analyst Matt Miller. In an interview with Andrew Whitelaw of EssentiallySports, he said:

“I think if (Shedeur) deserved to start, Kevin Stefanski would start him. … So until we have proof that Sanders should play Gabriel, I think we have to trust the guys that are there every day to get the job done.”

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Kevin Stefanski could relinquish play-calling duties amid Browns struggles

However, the quarterback situation may not be the only area where Kevin Stefanski is making a change. There’s also the question of whether he can still competently call games.

In a press conference Monday, he discussed the possibility of handing over those duties to offensive coordinator Tommy Rees for the Week 10 game against the New York Jets, just as he did last season with Ken Dorsey:

“I have to make time for all of those things, and I think it’s positionally where we need to be better and where we need to put our players in better spots, if you will. So we’ll look at all of that this week and make a decision following the bye.”

And for Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, this may be the change the Browns need to end their offensive crisis:

“There’s just not much else that can be done right now to fix this problem, unless the Browns are willing to add a good veteran receiver and find an experienced, veteran quarterback who might fare better than rookie Dillon Gabriel.”

Kickoff for the aforementioned game is at 1 p.m. ET on CBS.