It finally happened on Sunday evening. Shedeur Sanders got his shot at playing in a real NFL game.

Sanders entered in the second half of the Cleveland Browns’ 23-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens after starting quarterback and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel was evaluated for a concussion.

When it was announced on the CBS broadcast, the expected played out. Sanders has been a polarizing figure since his days playing at Colorado, so some fans believed he was about to get his shot to prove people wrong and others expected him to flop.

The latter happened as he finished 4-of-16 passing for 47 yards with an interception. He also should have been intercepted a second time and he fumbled, but it was recovered by right guard Wyatt Teller.

With all of that said, there was one positive to pull from the 30 minutes of game action.

Sanders came into the NFL draft with one indisputable trait: his ball placement.

The rookie had a few good throws, including an incomplete pass to Gage Larvadain along the left sideline in the end zone, which could have tied the game if not for a great play by Ravens’ defensive back Chidobe Awuzie, who attacked Larvadain’s hands and ripped the ball out at the last second.

Waking up on Monday, the internet and media members had unsurprisingly already picked their side.

Some are already saying Sanders’ isn’t an NFL quarterback, while others are pinning the blame on Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski for not giving him first-team reps leading up to that point.

During the draft process, I said that Sanders could be like Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith. Some physical talent, but probably not a top-10 QB. It took Smith several years to figure it out and become the starting quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks, where he saw some success.

On the flip side, the majority of people who don’t see practices beyond the high school level don’t understand how practices are structured.

Even at the college level, practice isn’t individual drills and getting together for team reps. It’s more like running no-huddle for 90 minutes.

Usually a clock operator puts about 10 minutes on the scoreboard or watch, and that’s the amount of time the coaches get for whatever stage of practice they are in.

So that’s 10 minutes of individual drills — for QBs this would usually be practicing handoffs — then 10 minutes of practicing the run game plan, then back to 10 minutes of seven-on-seven, then 10 minutes of installing pass plays, then 10 more minutes of position drills and 10 minutes of team reps. Special teams is usually the last group to practice, so 10 minutes for punt, 10 minutes for kickoff and return and 10 minutes for field goals and point-after attempts.

So that’s nine stages at 10 minutes each, so 90 minutes of practice. The teams also have a stretching session led by the team strength trainer, which counts toward “on-field time” as well.

In the NFL, teams are on the field Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. So practices are a little longer, but the structure is similar.

So if you’re a coach trying to get a rookie starting quarterback up to speed, they need as many reps as possible. Stefanski can’t waste reps on Sanders as the backup while trying to get Gabriel ready.

Some former NFL quarterbacks took to X (it should still be called Twitter) to explain how the practices are structured, and former Browns fourth-round pick Luke McCown was one of them and explained it perfectly.

“The only time mid round pick rookies and backups get meaningful reps is in training camp, and they are never with the ones unless you are competing or starting that next preseason game,” McCown said in his post.

“Regular season practices have 10-12 plays per period … that’s team run, team pass, team blitz pickup, and some teams still do 7v7 period. … But for the most part (that is) 30-40 live full speed reps of the actual gameplan practiced Wed, Thursday and Friday in the NFL … these all go to the starting QB … he’s the one that has to get ready. And if healthy he gets to make the call.”

Sanders’ debut was objectively underwhelming, but he will get a shot at a full week of practice if Gabriel isn’t cleared from concussion protocol. Fans shouldn’t jump to conclusions based on one half of a game.

If Sanders is indeed the starting quarterback on Sunday when the Browns face the Raiders, that will be the time to start making assessments on where he stands as an NFL quarterback.