The Cleveland Browns met up with the Buffalo Bills Thursday for a joint practice before the two teams square off on Saturday. As always, the focus for Browns fans was on the quarterback battle between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson.The Bills were well aware of this and one beat reporter on the scene shared a strong take directed toward Sanders shared by a Buffalo defender.Shedeur Sanders hears jeers from the BillsESPN's Daniel Oyefusi shared what one Bills defender had to say when playing against Sanders.Overheard from a Bills defender: “This s*** checkdown city!”— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) August 20, 2026"This s*** checkdown city!" was overhead on the field.To translate, the Bills defender was calling out the fact Sanders was only able to throw short passes on the day. Reporter Tom Withers confirmed this sentiment as C.J. Gardner-Johnson had a critique of his own from the sidelines.Bills S C.J. Gardner-Johnson not practicing but talking all kinds of smack. Earlier he was yelling "Check-down King" in the direction of Sanders on the sideline.— Tom Withers (@twithersCLE) August 20, 2026The Bills are an elite team and joint practices are known to get chippy. Browns fans may just be worried that even in a practice format, Sanders was unable to go deep or even get the time to let the play develop.Videos from the practice do show Sanders completing several good passes, but again, the Bills defenders clearly saw something to let their jeers be heard.Sanders ia a polarizing figure and opposing defenders were not shy last year about doing his "wrist up" celebration in his face. He is an easy target and it makes sense the Bills were trying to get in his head on Thursday.The real test will be Saturday in actual gameplay. Sanders will be without many of his starters on offense and will be tasked with carrying the load in what will be his best and final chance to prove he should be the Week 1 starter. Throwing short checkdowns all day will not show off his talents.Watson appears to be the favorite to start Week 1 and the fact Sanders is starting Saturday with mostly backups does not bode well for his chances. If he was going to be the starter it would make sense for him to get some game reps with the first team.Yet there is no way of truly knowing how head coach Todd Monken feels. He wants to win and if Sanders lights up the Bills on Saturday, he may go with the young quarterback as his starter. The fact no one has pulled away to this point means the decision could truly come down to how Saturday goes.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow