Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders has been on a rollercoaster since the 2025 NFL Draft.
Incorrectly, some could argue irresponsibly, projected to be a high first-round selection, Sanders fell to the fifth round before the Browns selected him with the No. 144 overall pick.
Sanders’ drop can be attributed to one of two things:
- He played in a simplified offense in college at Jackson State and Colorado. While Sanders had success, NFL offenses are more complicated, and it can take time to learn.
- A conspiracy that was allegedly hatched by the NFL to ensure Sanders would go undrafted, with the intention of teaching him a lesson, only for the NFL to panic and order the Browns to select him in the fifth round.
The call for Sanders to be named the Week 1 starter intensified after Cleveland’s first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. Sanders had a good, not great,
performance that day, one that gave him something to build on.
Unfortunately, an oblique strain kept Sanders out of the preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles, and then came Saturday’s very bad day against the Los Angeles Rams, where Sanders finished three-of-six 14 yards, took five sacks, and looked like anything but a quarterback ready to start a regular-season game.
That created a new firestorm that we will not be exploring here – a basic Google search will reveal everything you need to know about that topic – but we do want to share what is a completely reasonable take on Sanders from ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky.
Everything that was a negative about Sanders’ game at Colorado was on display against the Rams: holding the ball too long, not reading the defense, running backward from the pass rush, not utilizing his checkdown receiver, and so on.
Orlovsky also pointed out that while fans see what happens during the preseason games, the Browns see everything, from practice to film work and meetings, which is all included in the evaluation. And unless the wheels completely come off the offense, always a possibility with the Browns, or injuries hit the position hard, Orlovsky does not believe Sanders will see the field this fall.
That may wind up as the headline for many of Sanders’ fans, but the true takeaway is that everything that went wrong for Sanders is fixable. From the moment he arrived in Cleveland, he has put in the work and done everything that has been asked of him, which is a huge positive in his favor.
There is no shame in admitting that a player selected late on the third day of the draft needs to refine his game. It may not come as quickly as some were expecting, but it is clear what Sanders needs to work on.
It is now up to him to find out how to make it all work.
