Much was made of where Shedeur Sanders was selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. Now, he’ll have the chance to potentially start early on in his career in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns.
Mike Greenberg looked at Sanders’ place in the Browns quarterback room on “Get Up” on Monday. Considering the other options for the franchise at the position, Greenberg believes Sanders has the opportunity to be a starter in the near future for Cleveland, despite falling to the fifth round as the No. 144 overall pick.
“This is now the Browns’ quarterback room,” said Greenberg. “I don’t think Deshaun Watson will be in that room. I think he has played his last game there. Kenny Pickett has been on three teams in two years. Joe Flacco – I made a joke about earlier. He’s obviously a much older player. They’re not banking on him for their future. And I think that, despite the fact that Dillon Gabriel was drafted ahead of Shedeur Sanders, everyone considered Shedeur a higher-rated prospect than Dillon Gabriel.”
“I think there was extenuating circumstances with Shedeur, right. We’ve talked about it all morning long. So, that’s what I said that the one thing that hasn’t been said enough is he wound up in a great place,” Greenberg said. “Like, the draft is the beginning of the story. It’s not the end. We treat it like it’s the end because we spend so much time talking about it. But, right now, if I had to bet on it, I would bet that Shedeur Sanders is the starting quarterback for Cleveland sometime relatively early this season. This is just a, I don’t know, guess…And, if he’s good, he’ll have his chance to prove it.”
Sanders is definitely an option to be Cleveland’s QB1 at some point in 2025. Watson is unlikely to play anyway, if ever again for the team, coming off a pair of Achilles tears while Flacco and Pickett each have their cons despite being veterans. That then brings it to the pair of rookie quarterbacks with the Browns selecting Gabriel in the third round before Sanders in the fifth. All that considered, that’s a starting job that’s up in the air which could end up being Sanders’ by season’s end.
Mike Tannenbaum agreed with Greenberg, at least if for no other reason than the Browns have to sort this all out at the position. They need to know what they have at quarterback at all by the time the 2026 NFL Draft rolls around, considering they now have a pair of first-round picks following Friday’s trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“He might be the best player, A,” said Tannenbaum. “Then, B, if we’re the Browns, we have two ones next year. We have to know what we have between Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.”
Peter Schrager also felt this was among the best-case scenarios for Sanders. He may not have ended up there with as high of a pick but he’ll get to work with an offensive-minded staff on a team that’s still searching for a starting quarterback moving forward.
“You might say, Cleveland? That’s where quarterbacks go to rot? No. He’s got an opportunity to win the job,” said Schrager. “Furthermore, this particular coaching staff with Stefanski and Tommy Rees and Bill Musgrave? Like, they are quarterback guys. All of them are looked at as quarterback experts. If there is a coaching staff and a nurturing coaching staff, it’s an offensive one like that and not one where it’s a defensive coordinator who just does not want you to turn the ball over.”
No one really thought that Sanders, as a prospect coming into this draft, would slide to the fifth round. Now, after falling that far, he might actually be in one of the best spots possible to prove what happened was wrong as one of the Browns’ next options at quarterback.
