On Sept. 21, 2024, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders braved the evening mist with his fellow Buffaloes for one last-ditch comeback attempt at Folsom Field. The Baylor Bears held a 31-24 lead with just over two minutes remaining, but a missed field goal created an opportunity for the Buffs to even the score with one final drive.
The Colorado drive sputtered to start, with a pair of penalties, a near-disaster on a Sanders fumble and sack and a false-start penalty narrowing the Buffs’ margin for error. But Sanders wouldn’t give up, sprinting for 17 yards to set up a manageable third-down opportunity, firing a pass for another six yards and converting the fourth-and-1 on a quarterback keeper with under 20 seconds remaining.
In need of prime-time magic, Sanders had three opportunities to keep Colorado’s hopes alive and half a football field to go. The first two Sanders passes hit the Folsom Field grass, but on the third drop back, Sanders rolled to his left as the clock hit zero. As the Baylor pass rush closed in, Sanders launched a moonshot to the end zone, and his prayer found the arms of receiver LaJohntay Wester for an incredible 43-yard touchdown. Standing just beyond the opposite end zone as the play unfolded, I soaked in the pure jubilation erupting throughout the Folsom Field stands (and literally soaked in my gray suit from the cold, wet conditions). Colorado never looked back, sealing the come-from-behind 38-31 victory in overtime.
Sanders’ late-game heroics epitomized his swagger, football talent and ascending draft stock. In retrospect, the shining moment is the polar opposite of how his step to the next level unfolded.
Expected to be a top-10 NFL Draft pick as recently as Wednesday (I projected the New York Giants to take him with the third pick), Sanders endured a draft slide for the ages.
Sanders didn’t simply slide from the top-10 to the bottom of the first round. He did not hear his name called in the first round, then tumbled through the second and third rounds on Friday, along with the fourth round on Saturday morning. His precipitous fall mercifully ended in the fifth round, when the Cleveland Browns — a team that had already drafted a different quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, two rounds earlier — selected Sanders with the 144th pick. The drama was the defining storyline of all three days of draft coverage and one of the most puzzling developments in the history of the NFL.
Obviously, Shedeur Sanders’ NFL career would look a lot more promising if he maintained his position as the top quarterback prospect of his draft class and captured the hearts of an NFL team selecting in the top 10 (and the Titans, Giants, Saints and Browns had enough of a need at the position to pick quarterbacks in the top three rounds). But Sanders’ aspirations of making it as a starting NFL quarterback aren’t obsolete — just ask sixth-round pick Tom Brady, the most accomplished NFL player of all-time, or seventh-round pick Brock Purdy, who is just one year removed from a Super Bowl appearance. What is more daunting is his landing spot, which does those aspirations no favors and ensures that Sanders’ first seasons in the NFL will be enshrouded with as much controversy as his deflating draft outcome.
Entering Thursday’s first round, Sanders was the consensus no. 2 quarterback in his draft class, a flashy passer with accuracy and playmaking ability and a limited ceiling as a long-term starter. Miami’s Cam Ward emerged as the premier passer and the likely pick of the quarterback-needy Tennessee Titans at no. 1 overall (the Titans ultimately took Ward without much hesitation), but Sanders had a case for being just as talented a quarterback as Ward at the pro level. All it would take for Sanders to prove his worth as the best quarterback in the class was a franchise that believed in Sanders and an opportunity to do what he does best — compete.
But Sanders, and those in his camp, did himself no favors in finding that perfect fit and seemed to spend more energy repelling certain franchises. Sanders did not participate in practices leading up to the East-West Shrine Bowl showcase and did not throw during the NFL Scouting Combine. He did launch this grenade of a quote into the conversation around him:
“If you ain’t trying to change the franchise or the culture, don’t get me. … I’ve done it again over and over, so it should be no question why a franchise should pick me.”
In addition to that bold declaration, Sanders touched on a factor that ultimately became a major, unprecedented red flag — the involvement of his father, Hall of Famer and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders. The elder Sanders raised eyebrows of his own by raising the possibility of the family orchestrating a trade if they did not like the organization that selected Shedeur, and the possibility of his continued involvement once Shedeur joined an NFL team complicated matters further.
“The number getting picked don’t matter,” the younger Sanders said, according to NFL.com. “I wasn’t the top-rated quarterback coming out of high school because there’s a lot of exterior things that people like and don’t like about me. … I’m realistic about my family and everything people say comes with it.”
Sanders invoked Brady’s name in making his case that draft position is not the most important factor, but he certainly did not expect to last five rounds and hear the names of five quarterbacks get called before his selection. Still, Sanders is an electric talent, and the shock of his draft fiasco will stoke his competitive fire. His NFL career is not over before it has begun.
But can he live up to his promise as a long-term NFL starting quarterback in Cleveland? The Browns have given him an opportunity to take the leap to the NFL, but that opportunity has too many thorns and obstacles to be a comfortable fit.
For one, the Browns have four quarterbacks that they have invested more resources into than Sanders: Deshaun Watson (still on a mega-contract), recent Comeback Player of the Year Joe Flacco (acquired as a steady veteran), former first-rounder Kenny Pickett (acquired via trade) and another draft pick in Sanders’ class in Dillon Gabriel. NFL teams typically keep two or three quarterbacks during the season, and most only have three or four quarterbacks signed to their roster currently who will be competing for those spots, not five. The Browns’ usage of a fifth-round pick to snag Sanders was more of a reflection of his value in the late rounds, and not at all the vote of confidence in him as the face of the franchise that a first-round pick would have signaled.
On paper, Sanders is the most skilled and has the most long-term potential of those five (though the Browns selected Gabriel two rounds earlier), so let’s suppose he sees significant playing time in the 2025 NFL season, due to his own training camp performance or injuries to the starter. The Browns field a roster that is coming off a 3-14 record in 2024 and were the only team in their highly-competitive division with a losing record. Cleveland has less offensive firepower and support for its quarterback than the rest of its AFC North counterparts and is not set up for success in the immediate future. And if the Browns can’t claw their way into the AFC playoff picture in the next couple seasons, could the duo of general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski be on their way out?
By the end of his rookie deal, Sanders will need to establish himself as the Browns’ starting quarterback and prove that his skill set can mold the Browns into perennial playoff contenders. Given the range of candidates in Cleveland’s quarterback room and the Browns’ lack of investment in Sanders in terms of draft capital, Sanders’ path to the starting spot is no sure thing. And if he gets there, the Browns’ deficient roster and franchise instability loom large as considerable obstacles. The last Cleveland quarterback to bring the Browns to the playoffs in consecutive seasons was Bernie Kosar in the late 1980s. Is the Browns’ current fifth-round flyer a real threat to end that streak?
The landing spot for any quarterback prospect is a key variable in their ultimate success. And while Sanders’ talent and skill set does not change based on the team that selected him, his outlook and opportunity certainly does. The conversation around Sanders’ potential NFL success would be much different if he had two factors more clearly in his favor: a mandate to be a team’s starting quarterback and talent on offense to showcase his skills.
On the first point, landing with the Titans, Steelers or Saints would have positioned Sanders as the favorite to be his team’s QB1. For the second, a first- or second-round selection by a team with a current short-term starting quarterback and considerable offensive talent like the Raiders, Dolphins or Rams would give Sanders the opportunity to learn from a veteran and likely have a chance to prove himself before his rookie deal expires. The Browns’ fit doesn’t deliver on either point. Sanders’ selection was an astute move by Cleveland — fifth-round picks never have the upside of NFL franchise quarterback and the pick is a low-risk, high-reward decision — but Sanders stands to lose his best chance at a starting spot in the NFL if the match doesn’t work out.
Performance matters in the NFL, but presentation and optics matter too, especially when it comes to the draft. That’s the moral of Sanders’ fall — there is no way he would have lasted until Day 3 if he took a more refined, team-first approach, given his immense talent. Now that the draft is complete, the focus flips to what Sanders can achieve with the limited opportunity he has been afforded at the pro level, and whether he can apply the lessons he learned from the draft process to approach his role with humility and a team-first mentality.
That desperation heave against Baylor back in September? The play feels like a distant memory more than six months later, and possibly a faint glimmer of hope that, in spite of all the odds he faces, Sanders still has moments of football magic ahead of him.
Riker's Block 
Great article JR! Good perspective and summary.
Rod – Sent from my iPhone
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