The Cleveland Browns created one of the more interesting storylines of the 2025 NFL offseason by waiting until the fifth round to select a possible franchise quarterback in former Colorado star Shedeur Sanders. Expectations for his rookie year in Cleveland vary wildly.
Many of those who partake in doom and gloom with this franchise are already projecting a Johnny Manziel-like decline into nothingness. Manziel himself believes Sanders is well equipped to handle the same problems that managed to trip up the former Texas A&M star in the pros.
"He's going to an opportunity now in Cleveland with a quarterback situation that, honestly, he can come out of and win the job," Manziel said on his Glory Daze podcast. "There's no doubt about that. I think he'll do well. I really do. I think the kid works really hard, I think he loves the game of ball...I think he'll be successful."
Like Sanders, Manziel also had to deal with a surprising Draft fall that ended when Cleveland got desperate. Things didn't work out well for Manziel, though his story of struggling to turn the Browns around may not have too many parallels with Sanders' tale.
Johnny Manziel believes Shedeur Sanders will succeed as Browns QB
Manziel's problems stemmed from a lack of NFL size, an unwillingness to watch film, and off-field problems impacting his performance. Sanders might not last in the NFL, but any potential failure in the pros will not come from a Manziel-like unraveling off the field.
Sanders has much better arm talent than Manziel, and his lack of athletic ability is overshadowed by a high-end football brain that helps him process quickly and avoid turnovers. Sanders was also raised from birth to be a great professional player by one of the greatest to ever do it.
Sanders has spent the early stages of the offseason program showing that the league made a huge mistake letting him slide until the fifth round. Sanders has routinely been one of the more impressive quarterbacks of the four currently on the roster, so much so that fans can't rule out the idea of him eventually starting.
As long as Sanders keeps his head in the game, which doesn't seem to be a problem considering everything that has been said about him both before and after the draft, it seems unlikely that he will end up following the same destructive path Manziel was on.
