Henry McKenna
NFL Reporter
You know what word we’d use to describe a QB who saves the Cleveland Browns?
Legendary.
Shedeur Sanders has been through a brutal weekend. Once in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick, he landed with the Browns in the fifth round at 144th overall. Five quarterbacks went above Sanders, including his new teammate, Dillon Gabriel, an Oregon prospect.
But there’s good news for Sanders. He can go back to football now. And in the process, he can shut everyone up. It’s what he’s always done.
The thing about the NFL Draft and the pre-draft process is that there’s very little football involved. There are interviews, meetings with the media, workouts and visits. There’s sprinting in underwear, there’s throwing without pads or pass-rushers, and there are anonymous quotes from anonymous executives with anonymous hot takes.
None of that served Sanders, who is — without a doubt — the most compelling character in the draft. Most interesting of all was his fall. I used that word on purpose: character. Because that’s what the draft process unfairly reduced him to. Folks didn’t treat him like a person or even like the rest of the football players in his draft class. Sanders was the starring character in a reality show. That’s probably not over — because he has a camera following him everywhere — but it’s no longer the focus.
This isn’t to say that falling this far won’t sting. It will. For a long time. And statistically, it doesn’t bode well for his chances in the NFL. After all, 25 of the NFL’s likely 32 starting quarterbacks in 2025 are going to be former first-round picks, if you include Cam Ward. And it’s 26 if you figure Jaxson Dart will be the starter in New York (and I think he will be at some point in 2025). Brock Purdy is the only starting QB selected after the fourth round.
The truth is that Browns coach Kevin Stefanski might not have a great track record with wins and losses. But he has made the most of quarterback talents like Joe Flacco and Jameis Winston. Stefanski is quietly one of the better offensive minds, but he doesn’t get much credit because of the putrid QB situations he’s managed. So there are plenty of reasons to believe that Sanders can be the next QB that Stefanski elevates. But there will also be more adversity for Sanders. There’s Gabriel, who went ahead of Sanders. Cleveland still has Deshaun Watson’s contract holding the organization down — and I think it’s unlikely the QB will ever play another game for the team. But he’ll loom over the situation if he comes back from his Achilles injury.
All that said, Sanders could be the Day 1 starter.
If he can figure out how to rethink his fall, he can take away four victories. First, it’s that he landed with Stefanski. Second, it’s that he’s now an underdog — a statistical long shot. Third, it’s that people will root for an underdog. And it felt like few were rooting for him until this great slide happened. Fourth, this is a humbling lesson. After all, many anonymous evaluators said they felt he was arrogant in his interactions with teams. And if there’s a sliver of truth in that, then this fall could help keep things in perspective — not to take anything for granted.
But Sanders’ personality — and his father Deion’s personality — isn’t the primary reason why he fell.
The reason that Sanders fell, first and foremost, is that, as a quarterback, he isn’t special in any one way. He doesn’t have a standout trait that teams can build an offense around. Not his arm strength. Not his athleticism. Not his decision-making. That mattered during the draft process. That might not end up mattering when he takes the field in the NFL. He might be a better football player than the sum of his parts. That happens all the time in the NFL. My goodness, you’d think NFL GMs would be better at getting the quarterback position right, but they’re not good at it. They could have gotten this evaluation wrong.
Sanders has accomplished things that few other quarterbacks have. He and his father went to Jackson State and built up that program. Then they moved on to Colorado, where they rebuilt that program. It’s now on Shedeur to go to the Browns and build the team up. They’ve long been the laughingstock of the NFL.
But remember that in 2024, Sanders threw for 4,134 yards, 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions without much of an offensive line and without much in the way of weapons aside from Travis Hunter. Sanders was a terrific college football player, and he’ll get his chance to prove that he can replicate that at the NFL level. Because maybe the draft process was the worst thing for him, but the NFL season could be the best thing for him.
If he starts throwing touchdowns and winning football games, his draft position won’t matter — except, perhaps, that it will signify what he had to overcome. Sanders couldn’t change the conversation at the NFL Combine. But he can do it in Cleveland. Once he picks up his head and realizes all that, he’ll be just fine.
“This shouldn’t have happened,” Sanders said at his draft party after the first round on Thursday night.
Maybe not.
Now he needs to go out and prove it.
Prior to joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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