What happens when an irredeemable curse meets an undraftable object?
Hello, Cleveland, where the tug-of-war between the Browns’ Zombie QB Graveyard and the Sanders Turnaround Magic just became Lake Erie’s main event.
“I know I’m going to fit in perfectly,” Shedeur Sanders told reporters Saturday after being selected by the Browns in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft. “I’m here ready to work and let people actually see the real me and not stuff that could be true or not.”
The Cleveland Browns are the Cleveland Shedeurs now. The backup QB usually becomes the most popular guy in any NFL town. Sanders will be the most popular backup QB anywhere.
Although … did you see the looks on the faces of coach Kevin Stefanski and GM Andrew Berry after CU’s greatest passer was selected with pick No. 144? Hostages have wider smiles. Golf claps all around.
Meanwhile, owner Jimmy Haslam, who got chummy with Deion Sanders during the Buffs’ pro timing day/showcase in Boulder earlier this month, has to be dancing a jig. You know how much Browns/Shedeur merch he’s about to move? Fans in the Cleve finally have a reason to swap out all that Tim Couch swag they’ve had buried since Y2K.
The NFL sent the Sanders family a message this weekend. It wasn’t kind. Still, when Shedeur talked a few weeks ago about wanting to change a culture in the NFL, the way he and his family renovated Jackson State and CU, he couldn’t have asked for a better fixer-upper than the Brownies, where Johnny Manziel crashed and Deshaun Watson’s contract burned.
Cleveland’s QB room makes the Island of Misfit Toys look like Club Med. Joe Flacco is 65. Kenny Pickett got run out of Pittsburgh. Dillon Gabriel is a 5-foot-11 rookie.
“Seriously — Joe Flacco at this age and stage?” Fox Sports analyst Brock Huard asked me with a chuckle Saturday. “Kenny Pickett at this age and stage? It’s not Vegas. You don’t have Geno Smith or 10 other people there who are already established starters.”
Two scouts I spoke to this week, independent of each other, said they’d give Shedeur a second-round grade. As a college QB, he left guys who were taken ahead of him — Louisville’s Tyler Shough, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel — eating his dust. The guy’s offensive line in Boulder in 2023 was hot garbage. He threw for 27 touchdowns and 3,230 yards anyway. Sanders’ pocket protection improved to mediocre last fall, and he still put up 37 TDs and 4,134 yards through the air.
On the flip side, it’s a projection game, and some of the things Shedeur did at CU will get him smashed like a Freddy’s steakburger at the next level. He looked at sacks the way MLB hitters look a strikeouts, because he always knew he could hit a home run on third and long. Not at the next level. If he trusts Jerry Jeudy the same way he trusted Travis Hunter, it’ll probably be at his peril.
“It got to a point where he was probably mispriced, relative to the draft,” Berry told Cleveland media. “It’s a guy that we think can outproduce his draft slot.”
On paper, the Browns landed a steal. On precedent, Shedeur landed in QB Hades, one of those NFL destinations where great collegiate resumes go to die. Sanders rewrote the history books in Boulder. If he’s going to do the same in Cleveland, he’ll need two good tackles and a safety valve with better mitts than Jeudy’s.
“I was up at (CU’s) pro day, and Stefanski was front and center,” Huard continued. “And if you had told him that you were going to get this kid in the fifth round, he would’ve been pretty shocked.”
So while some evaluators, and Coach Prime himself, saw Shedeur as a top-five pick, the consensus from draftniks was a second-round arm with first-round accoutrements. A world-famous dad who, through social media, has also become one of the greatest influencers in North American sports. A family that’s so good in front of the cameras that they seemingly never turn them off.
Can a franchise put up with a camera crew following around your No. 2 or No. 3? A lot of teams wouldn’t. A lot of coaches wouldn’t.
“But I don’t know, honestly, at this point,” Huard said, “if he’s (going there) with a backup mindset.”
Shedeur will bring his own private camera crew, his own private social media team, his own private coaches. The people in his inner circle will make him the center of attention, even if the coaches don’t.
Which, given the lack of competition, will make for a fascinating dynamic. Like Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, LeBron James, Tom Brady or Elon Musk, anything Shedeur does — good, bad, whatever — is a story, because anything his father does becomes a story.
Everything near Sanders circles rises in social media scrutiny, too. When ESPN cut to the Browns’ war room after the pick was announced, cameras caught Stefanski and Berry clapping politely.
It went viral immediately. Hot takes abounded. The thumb warriors deduced that the pair were less than thrilled with the pick, as if someone had forced their hands. Cleveland media even asked the two Saturday afternoon why they weren’t exactly pumping fists and doing cartwheels.
“I think sometimes when they show those clips, it’s not timed up to exactly the right time. So I wouldn’t read too much into that,” Stefanski told reporters.
“I think we’re probably just tired from the weekend,” Berry added.
Probably true. But it instantly became a thing. There will be more “things.” Lots of “things.”
Which, when you’re as sad as the Browns, could be a good thing.
“It’s so tantalizing,” Huard said. “On so many different levels.”
The timing wasn’t perfect. Crazy as it sounds, the destination might be.
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