The preseason game vs the Chicago Bears wasn’t without mistakes for Shedeur Sanders. In his first outing of 2026, the Year 2 QB threw one of Cleveland’s two interceptions. He isn’t too happy about it.

“What I see is the right read just slipped,” Sanders said to the reporters. “It was the right read. It just slipped. So that’s what makes me be mad a little bit because of it. But any decision I make, I know it’s the right decision. I just didn’t execute the decision, but the right decision was made.”

Sanders played in the third quarter and part of the fourth, going 6-of-11 for 79 yards. On his last throw, he was intercepted by the Bears’ Beanie Bishop Jr. Even though he did not start the game, it might hamper his opportunities to start in the future.

Deshaun Watson made the most of the game, which resulted in a 34-10 loss. He led the Cleveland Browns on two scoring drives in the first half. He completed 11 of 15 passes for 126 yards, but was sacked once. That kind of performance clearly meant something to Todd Monken, who couldn’t hide his excitement about it afterward.

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“For him to come back and work as he did is an unbelievable credit to him,” Monken said in the postgame press conference. “He was having fun today. And that is so cool. And I thought he really functioned at a high level… It was fun watching him play and watching us put the next step forward and see where we’re at.”

Monken confirmed Sanders will start Cleveland’s next preseason game against the Buffalo Bills, likely playing the entire first half. As for how Sanders is processing the mistake himself, he didn’t sound rattled. He was refreshingly honest about how he evaluates his own play.

 “So every day I look, and I see about decision-making, like, how are my decisions I’m making?” Sanders explained. ”And then that’s how I grade myself off of, you know. Obviously, turning the ball over and all that stuff is not great, you know, and it won’t survive a long time in the league doing that. But as long as my eyes and my feet and everything were in the right place, being able to execute it, it just may happen. So I look at the positive of things, you know. I’m alive. I’m breathing. I’m able to come up here and talk to y’all. So, you know, I can’t be that down.”

One rough game won’t define Sanders, but next week against Buffalo, he’ll have every chance to prove it.