The Cleveland Browns shocked many observers around the NFL when they didn’t take Shedeur Sanders during the first two days of the draft.
After passing on him on six opportunities, the Browns eventually ended the draft’s biggest drama by taking Sanders with the 144th overall pick Saturday.
“I can’t speak to the market pricing the way it did,” general manager Andrew Berry said after Sanders’ selection. “Once it got to the point it was a pretty steep discount — this made the most sense.
“It’s a guy that we think can outproduce his draft slot,” Berry added. “I wouldn’t say it’s any more than that. … Our expectation is for him to come in here and work and compete. Nothing has been promised. Nothing will be given.
“I may hesitate to categorize it as a ‘blockbuster’ because that’s not necessarily how we thought of the transaction, but we are excited to work with him.”
Sanders, who Berry described as a “good, solid prospect at the most important position,” became the second quarterback drafted by Cleveland this weekend and the 14th since the Browns returned to the league in 1999.
Cleveland began the draft by trading out of the second overall spot, where Jacksonville took Sanders’ teammate and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter. They ended their draft by trading up to grab Sanders, sending fifth- and sixth-round picks to Seattle.
Even though not many expected the Browns to take a second quarterback, Berry was complimentary about Sanders on Friday night. “It’s less about where you get picked, and what you do after you get picked,” he said.
Sanders joins a Browns quarterback room that is in flux. Deshaun Watson’s days in Cleveland are numbered as he will potentially miss the entire 2025 season while recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in January. That occurred just three months after he initially injured it against Cincinnati.
Cleveland this month signed Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter in 2023 and led the Browns to the playoffs for only the third time since their return. They also acquired former Steelers first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett in a trade with Philadelphia at the start of free agency on March 12.
On Friday, they selected Oregon‘s Dillon Gabriel in the third round.
[MORE: Why Browns passed on Shedeur Sanders on Day 2 and took … Dillon Gabriel?]
None of them create the same buzz — positive or negative — as Sanders.
Even though Flacco has the experience, and is a cult hero among Browns fans for coming off the couch and leading the team to a postseason berth, Berry has said his signing would not play a factor in their draft decisions.
“We firmly believe that it’s not about picking a player who’s ready to contribute now, it’s about trying to find the player that you think is going to be the best if you have access to that player,” he said. “Quarterbacks mature and grow at their own pace and our thought isn’t in terms of immediacy but making the next long-term bet.”
Flacco said earlier this week he wasn’t going to be watching the draft and that he hasn’t viewed himself solely as a mentor in the quarterback room.
“I’ve played a lot of football, and I have a lot of different experiences, and there’s a certain way that I see it, and there’s a certain way I can talk about footwork and reads and those things, and I think they naturally come up,” he said. “I think when you’re just have a competitive, good quarterback room, you don’t really have to worry about being a mentor. You just kind of do you. You compete and you have fun and conversations come up and everybody learns from it.”
Sanders — the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders — also isn’t lacking in confidence, saying during his pro day at Colorado “wherever I go it’s definitely going to be an improvement than what it was before I got there.”
[MORE: Browns QB Shedeur Sanders now has the chance to shut everyone up]
In what is considered to be a weak quarterback class, Sanders was projected by many as the position’s second-best prospect after Miami (Fla.)’s Cam Ward, who went to Tennessee with the top pick.
However, over the past month, opinions on Sanders have been all over the map, making him the draft’s most polarizing prospect. The biggest concerns were about Sanders’ arm strength and that he didn’t do well in interviews with some teams during the pre-draft process.
Sanders set Colorado single-season records last year as the Buffaloes made a bowl game for only the third time since 2008. He passed for 4,134 yards, 37 touchdowns and accounted for 41 total touchdowns en route to being named the Big 12’s Offensive Player of the Year and a second-team selection on the AP All-America team.
In 50 collegiate games at Jackson State and Colorado, Shedeur Sanders threw for 14,347 yards, with 134 touchdowns and 27 interceptions. He completed 70.1% of his passes and ran for 17 more scores.
Besides arm strength, Sanders’ decision-making on the field has also been scrutinized. He took 94 sacks over the last two seasons at Colorado, the most by a quarterback in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Coach Kevin Stefanski has said there will be an open competition among all four quarterbacks during training camp. Even though Stefanski has had 11 quarterbacks start at least one game during his first five seasons in Cleveland, this will be the first time the starting spot isn’t settled going into the summer.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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