Browns Likely Saved Shedeur Sanders From Huge Embarrassment

The Cleveland Browns probably didn’t plan to draft Shedeur Sanders upon entering the 2025 NFL draft, but the young QB is lucky they did.

Sanders’ talent can’t be denied. He helped turn around what was essentially a dead program at Colorado and made the team competitive in the Big 12.

The Buffaloes finished Sanders’ final campaign with a regular-season record of 9-3, including a 7-2 mark in conference play, before losing to the No. 17-ranked BYU Cougars in the Valero Alamo Bowl in December. Colorado had not posted a winning record since going 10-4 in the 2016 campaign.

Sanders finished the year with 4,134 passing yards and 37 touchdowns passes, both of which led the Big 12, as did his QB rate of 168.2. His 74% completion rate on 477 attempts led the FBS, per Football Reference.

Sanders doesn’t possess elite arm strength or mobility. But he is highly accurate, reads defenses quickly and well, has shown poise and toughness in the pocket with a willingness to take big hits in favor of making positive plays and often played his best during high-pressure moments.

Because of those traits, most analysts afforded Sanders a first- or second-round grade heading into the draft. However, rumors of his cavalier — and sometimes disrespectful — approach to pre-draft meetings saw him slide from potentially the top of the first round all the way to the fifth.

“The draft day plummet followed reports that Sanders didn’t interview well with NFL teams during private meetings, and irked some of them by not being prepared,” Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com wrote on Friday, June 27. “Other teams reportedly didn’t want to deal with some of the drama that might accompany acquiring the famous [Deion Sanders’] son.”

Browns’ Moves Indicated Shedeur Sanders Not Part of Initial Plan

Cabot speculated that Sanders may have gone undrafted were it not for the Browns.

“Sanders … endured the biggest draft day free fall for a quarterback in NFL history,” Cabot continued. “Had the [Browns] not thrown him a lifeline, the much-heralded rookie may have gone undrafted and had to sign with a team as a free agent.”

Cleveland passed on Sanders six times in the first two days of the proceedings, instead drafting Dillon Gabriel out of Oregon late in the third round.

That the Browns made those decisions after trading for Kenny Pickett and signing Joe Flacco in free agency earlier in the offseason indicated that Sanders was not part of the franchise’s initial plan.

Shedeur Sanders’ Roster Spot With Browns Still Not Guaranteed

Had Sanders gone undrafted like his brother and collegiate teammate safety Shilo Sanders, it would have undoubtedly been a massive embarrassment for him given his notoriety and talent level coming into the draft.

That isn’t to say there is any shame for players who earn spots on professional rosters after all 32 teams passed on them during the draft. Shilo Sanders is now a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and signed a three-year contract for $3 million total, though the team guaranteed almost none of that salary.

But for a player like Shedeur Sanders, with his profile and success at his particular position, the blow to his perception around the sports landscape would have been even more historic than his draft slide already was.

Sanders has since turned some heads on the Cleveland coaching staff with his work during the preseason, though he will still have to battle for a roster spot — let alone the starting job — during training camp and preseason game action later this summer.