Henry McKenna
NFL reporter
Do you know which word we would use to describe QB that saves the Cleveland Browns?
Legendary.
Shedeur Sanders has experienced a brutal weekend. Eleven in the conversation for the number 1 general choice, I landed with the browns in the fifth round at 144th General. Five Quarterbacks went Azeve Sanders, including his new teammate, Dillon Gabriel, a prospect of Oregon.
But there is good news for Sanders. He can now go back to football. And he can keep everyone in the process. It is what he has always done.
The thing about the NFL concept and the pre-Draft process is that Vry Little Football is involved. There are interviews, meetings with the media, training and visits. There is sprint in underwear, there is throwing without pads or pass treschers, and there are anonymous quotes from anonymous managers with anonymous Hot Takes.
None of that served Sanders, who is without a doubt the most compator sign in the design. The most interesting of all was his fall. I deliberately used that word: character. Because that is where the design process reduced him unfairly. People did not treat him as a person, not even like the rest of the football players in his concept class. Sanders was the leading role in a reality show. That is not overblay – scholauses have him everywhere – but it is no longer the focus.
This does not mean that failure will not poke that far. It will. Long time. And statistics, it does not predict well for his chances in the NFL. 25 of the likely 32 starting Quarterbacks of the NFL In 2025, former Picks will be in the first round if you record Cam Ward. And it is 26 if you think Jaxson Dart will be the starter in New York (and I think he will be in Sub Somo in 2025). Brock Purdy is the only starting QB that was selected after the fourth round.
The truth is that Browns coach Kevin Stefanski may not have a great track record with victories and losses. But he got the most quartback talents such as Joe Flacco and Jameis Winston. Stefanski is quietly one of the better offensive spirits, but he doesn’t get much credit because of the Puterid QB situations he has managed. So there are plenty of reasons to believe that Sanders can be the next QB that raises Stefanski. But there will also be more adversity for Sanders. There is Gabriel, who went for Sanders. Cleveland still has the Deshaun Watson contract and keeps the organization down – and I think it is unlikely that the QB will someday play a different game for the team. But he will loom about the situation when he returns from his Achilles injury.
All of that saying, Sanders Coud are the day 1 starter.
If he can find out to reconsider his fall, I can remove four winners. First, it is that he led with Stefanski. Secondly, it is that he is now an underdog – a statistically long shot. Thirdly, it is that people will root for an underdog. And it felt as if few are rooted for him until this big slide happened. Fourth, this is a humiliating lesson. Many anonymous evaluators said they thought he was arrogant in his interactions with teams. And if there is a piece of truth in it, autumn could help keep things in perspective – to take nothing for Grand.
But the personality of Sanders – and the personality of his father Dion – is the main reason why he fell.
The reason Sanders fell first and Fortnost is that he is special in a way as a quarterback ~. He has no striking feature that teams can build an attack. Not his arm power. Not his athletics. Not his decision -making. That mattered during the design process. That may not be important when he takes the field in the NFL. I may be a better football player than the sum of his parts. That always happens in the NFL. My goodness, you would think that NFL GMs would be better to get the Quarterback position good, but they are not good at it. They could have gotten this evaluation wrong.
Sanders, you have achieved things that have few other quarterbacks. He and his father went to Jackson State and built that program. They went on to color, where they rebuilt that program. It is now on Shedeur to go to the browns and to build the team. They have long been the laughter of the NFL.
But remember that in 2024 Sanders threw 4.134 meters, 37 touchdowns and 10 intercepts without much of an attacking line and without much in the way of weapons next to Travis Hunter. Sanders was a great university football player and he gets his chance to provide it to replicate that at NFL level. Perhaps the best concept process was the worst for him, but the NFL season could be best for him.
If he starts throwing touchdowns and winning football matches, his concept function does not matter – except, perhaps, that it will mean what he had to pass. Sanders cannot change the conversation at the NFL Combine. But he can do it in Cleveland. He picks up his head for eleven and performs it all, it will be fine.
“This should not have happened,” Sanders said at his concept party after the first round on Thursday evening.
Maybe not.
Now I have to go out and deliver.
Before he came to FOX Sports as NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years with regard to the Patriots For USA Today Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter @henrycmckenna.
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