Some college football players enter the NFL with a large fan base.
Peyton Manning was one of these. If you asked Tennessee football fans who their favorite NFL team is, their answer would be the Indianapolis Colts, and then later the Denver Broncos. They followed their favorite son. But his brother Eli did not garner this same attention from Ole Miss fans.
Virginia Tech fans were Atlanta Falcons enthusiasts because of Michael Vick. Every Florida fan became obsessed with the Broncos when Tim Tebow was
drafted in the first round. That became their NFL team.
That doesn’t always happen. Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy and just about every other offensive award, plus captured a National Championship for Auburn, yet outside of the city limits, few Auburn alums wore Carolina Panthers gear, nor followed him to the New England Patriots. Anything Cam-related in Auburn – sure. Outside of that, the interest waned.
Cleveland Browns QB Shedeur Sanders has that excited fan appeal and following. And it isn’t just from Colorado alumni. It is from just fans of him, and perhaps, his father. Whatever the source, they love Shedeur and are following his every move with Cleveland.
Deion Sanders was an incredible cornerback. He baited a ton of quarterbacks by playing off receivers that made them appear open. As soon as the ball was released on the throw, Deion’s closing speed kicked into another gear, and instead of the play being a huge gain, it was an interception for the opponent. Deion was a first ballot Hall of Fame candidate.
He became a cultural icon in that he trash-talked and completely backed it up. Now, being a D-1 head coach, people want to watch his team. That is why Colorado will have an afternoon primetime game on FOX against Delaware despite neither team being ranked.
Now comes one of his sons, who plays quarterback, the most important position on the football field. Fans from the University of Colorado love him because he arrived from Jackson State to play for them. But that is a natural occurrence. Of course, they love him and wish him well at the next level. This year, you will see Browns #12 jerseys in the stands at Colorado games.
Are his followers a bit unhealthy (fan is short for fanatic)? Is he a budding superstar or an eventual flop? Right now, Cleveland’s coaching staff doesn’t know. He was like a roller coaster in preseason games, playing well against second-team defenders in the Panthers contest, and looking pretty bad in the Los Angeles Rams exhibition game versus third-team guys who are mostly now unemployed.
However, the coaching staff only uses these game tapes as part of the evaluation for Shedeur. They don’t base all of their attention on these two games, but use all the practice sessions as part of their inherent information on the player.
During final training camp cuts, the coaching staff kept Shedeur on the roster, then named him their QB3. They don’t keep guys they don’t believe can help this ballclub. That would be just plain dumb. Dumber than dumb, actually. Every roster spot is important.
Sometimes, college players don’t transfer their skillset all that well when they arrive at the pro level. In college, a player may play against three guys all year that they struggle with, and dominate the remaining rosters. In the NFL, the other team’s backup is almost as good as you, much less their starter.
There are three camps regarding Shedeur: a) the “Start him now because he is a superstar” folks, b) the “He is already a bust” believers, and c) the “Wait and see” crowd.
Some folks point to his ability to use his legs to keep the offense on the field. Others state his decision-making is a disaster.
Scrambling quarterbacks come in two varieties. The first is a guy who gets pushed from the pocket and takes off to gain positive yardage. The second, when flushed, will look downfield still behind the line of scrimmage with the intent to find an open receiver.
Fran Tarkenton was the second type. He rarely left the zone behind the line of scrimmage with the full intent to throw the ball. When he retired, he was the NFL’s passing yards leader. But he was just 6’-0” tall and weighed 190 pounds. He couldn’t take the rigors of getting hit each game. That is why you see Russell Wilson dart out of bounds being 5’-11” and 206 pounds. That type of frame isn’t going to last in repeated collisions.
But the guys who take off and gain yardage are not only larger players, but they also like to run. Guys like John Elway, Randall Cunningham, Jayden Daniels, Steve Young, Tobin Rote, Michael Vick, Lamar Jackson, Jackie Parker, Steve McNair, and Josh Allen are an integral part of the offense by running for yardage. In 1972, Chicago Bears QB Bobby Douglass rushed for 968 yards in a single season (in a 14-game season) and gained a 6.5 yards per rushing attempt average in his career.
Editor’s note: Abby’s thoughts on Shedeur begin at the 9:18 mark
Shedeur appears to be a blend of both. He was flushed quite a bit at Colorado because of poor offensive line play and a suspect rushing attack. As a senior, he threw for 4,134 yards and completed 353 passes on 477 attempts. He tossed 37 touchdowns. All of these categories led the Pac-12 conference. He also had just 10 interceptions.
Oh, and his completion percentage was 74.0%. This led the nation. Anytime a quarterback has 60% or more completion percentage, it is considered to be successful. But into the 70s? Really?
His college numbers scream “superstar” at the next level. How many QB3’s have a pro jersey available for sale, much less are sold in record numbers?
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So far with the Browns, nobody can figure out what exactly Shedeur’s talent level actually is. Here is a player who was originally ranked in the Top-5 of the draft, who then ended up in Round 2, and when every team that needed a backup QB passed on him in the second round, he plummeted all the way into Round 5 before Cleveland traded up to grab him.
This then begs the question: Is Shedeur a first-round talent, or did the draft accurately reveal his standing when he fell into the fifth round?
Joe Thomas discusses Shedeur
Recently, Browns Hall of Fame inductee Joe Thomas was a guest on the Outkick.com podcast. Host Dan Dakich and Thomas discussed Shedeur’s talent and attempted to evaluate where he stands on Cleveland’s roster.
Thomas stated:
“There are a lot of nuances that the Shedeur Sanders cult doesn’t have. They believe we’re morons for not being able to see that this guy is the greatest quarterback since Tom Brady. And he’s ready right now to be able to elevate the franchise to their first Super Bowl of all time.”
Shedeur already has a lot of NFL fans. There are tons of Facebook fanpages dedicated to his next-level success and journey, including “Shedeur Sanders Fans Community!” fanpage among others. These fans have gravitated towards his playing style and are enamored with his famous dad. They aren’t necessarily Browns fans, but they now watch Cleveland games in an effort to see if their favorite player might hit the field while wearing his #12 Browns jersey.
Thomas then noted:
“He has a higher ceiling. He’s a great playmaker, and he has tremendous accuracy. He has that feel when he’s in the game of how to make those big plays. But just because you have that ceiling that’s really high and that potential to be able to do that doesn’t mean you can do it right now.”
Dakich and Thomas discussed the competition between third-round pick QB Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur. Dakich mentioned that if Shedeur was truly a first-rounder that slid pretty far in the draft, then his skillset should be miles above what Gabriel possesses. He wondered out loud why Shedeur could not beat out Gabriel for the backup QB position.
“As a first-round talent, that’s typically the guy that they’re able to put right in there right away and give them everything that they have. And as you know, there are growing pains with every quarterback, especially a rookie.”
Dakich then asked Thomas why Shedeur fell so far in the draft, and why every club passed on him five times, while some teams passed on him six.
Thomas’ take:
“I think the reason Shedeur fell to the fifth round is because they feel like he’s got a lot of development that he still needs to do before he can be an NFL starting quarterback. I think it’s not fair to say that he’s a first-round talent. It’s easy to say that he has a very, very high ceiling, and had he been developed more within a pro-style offense, he may have been a higher draft choice.”
Folks who are on the fence about Shedeur’s talent level point to his success at Colorado. Playing for his famous father, Shedeur was able to get endorsement deals and NIL money through Deion’s connections, and was always the unquestioned starting quarterback. Shedeur’s jersey was retired despite going 13-11-0 as a starter, plus without any conference titles or National Championships.
“The reality of an NFL draft pick is that you have 32 teams that all want to beat each other. And so, they’re not conspiring together to sabotage somebody who would be great for the league, and the league wants eyeballs. They want people to watch their games. They want these great personalities, and so there’s no reason they’d be trying to conspire against him. Actually, it is the opposite. They would want to promote a guy like that.”
If Shedeur had played exceptionally poorly in practices and looked really bad in preseason games, it would have been easy for the Browns coaching staff to waive him on the final cutdown and wish him well. But the reality is, they still don’t know what they have. He played great in the first exhibition game against the Panthers with two touchdown throws without any turnovers. But the majority of that game was against Carolina’s second-team defense, except for the first two series when the Panthers had five defensive starters on the field.
The tell-of-the-tape will be versus another club’s starting 11 on the defensive front. How does Thomas see Shedeur in this light? Is he an immense talent?
“I agree. He’s a great talent. But he’s not developed enough right now to be able to see that talent because he needs to be able to be in those pro-style systems for a lot longer before he will be able to show where that talent is.”
The fall from grace in the 2025 NFL draft will always be discussed and debated. It is obvious that Shedeur’s father, Deion, pumped up his son, and the rest of the football world simply followed suit.
He went on podcasts and national talk shows to inform the football universe that his son was a Top-5 draft pick. And we all soaked that in and accepted it as fact. Deion also stated he had a list of teams, 12 to be exact, he would refuse to have his son play for, like he could control any NFL team’s draft board.
But not to Round 5. The old saying is “the NFL draft determines your value.” Regardless, Shedeur was not a fifth-round talent. And he wasn’t a Top-5 talent either.
From Day 1 of the draft process, Shedeur was hyped up by the media and his family, and the people short on logic were bought into the fallacy. That is pretty clear now. NFL GMs did not fall for the hype at all, and they are the decision-makers.
As the Hall of Famer Thomas indicated, right now Shedeur needs time to develop and gain experience in a pro-style offense. Being slotted as the third QB on the depth chart, that should not be a problem as he gets reps in practice sessions and waits his turn.
But for now, where is the best place to get one of those #12 jerseys?
