There has, perhaps, never been a more polarizing rookie fifth round pick than Shedeur Sanders. Certainly, there are many fans who are excited about him moving forward, but that excitement hasn’t seemed to align with the Browns’ usage of him, and that’s led to some conspiracies among fans that he’s being sabotaged by his own […]
There has, perhaps, never been a more polarizing rookie fifth round pick than Shedeur Sanders. Certainly, there are many fans who are excited about him moving forward, but that excitement hasn’t seemed to align with the Browns’ usage of him, and that’s led to some conspiracies among fans that he’s being sabotaged by his own team.
For ESPN’s Ryan Clark, there’s no conspiracy. Instead, as he explained on Get Up, Shedeur Sanders is being treated like any fifth round pick should be treated. There’s just more attention on him, which is exacerbated by the public perception and the NFL’s perception of Sanders as a player not aligning.
“What it is that they’re doing is they’re treating Shedeur Sanders like a fifth round pick,” Ryan Clark said. “We’re not covering every fifth round pick in the NFL, hoping that he gets the opportunity to be the starter on Day 1. We felt like, oh my goodness, they got a diamond in the rough. Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round. They felt like they evaluated him there, and that’s where they picked him. They’re playing the guy that they picked in the third round over him because they evaluate him at a higher level than what they do Shedeur Sanders.”
Coming out of Colorado, where there was a lot of focus on Shedeur Sanders. In no small part, that’s because he was coached there by his father, Deion Sanders. That led to a lot of excitement for him going into the NFL Draft. Ahead of that, analysts were high on Sanders, projecting him to be a first round pick. Then, he slid to the fifth round and became the sixth quarterback selected off the board. He wasn’t even the first quarterback the Browns selected, taking Dillon Gabriel in the third round.
“I get it. We were all frustrated. We all thought that the analytics, that the way we viewed the film, said that Shedeur Sanders was a later first round, early second round pick,” Clark said. “But that is not the nature of the position that he’s in. There’s a lot of players who feel like they should have been picked at a certain spot, should’ve been viewed in a certain way, who, when you get on these teams, it’s about developing the team, not doing what’s individually best for a certain player. That’s what Kevin Stefanski has to do.”
The Cleveland Browns are in a very strange quarterback position this season. They’ve announced veteran Joe Flacco will start, but he’s not a long-term answer. Then, they have a former first round pick in Kenny Pickett, as well as the rookies Dillon Gabriel on the roster. That’s a lot of quarterbacks sharing snaps and needing to get their opportunities.
“I get it. We want to say all the reasons why what’s happening to him isn’t right,” Clark said. “But maybe we weren’t right on how the entire NFL viewed him, but now how the Cleveland Browns view him as well.”
Shedeur Sanders had his worst game of the preseason in Cleveland’s final preseason game. Against the Los Angeles Rams, he’d finish three of six passing for 14 yards. It was by far his worst performance of the preseason, and he was criticized for taking too many sacks and holding the ball too long. At the same time, that led to some of the sabotage conspiracies amongst fans, given that he was playing behind an offensive line that is, largely, not making the 53-man roster.
For his part, Sanders is going to be on the 53-man roster. The Browns already made the unique announcement that they’ll carry four quarterbacks, a very high number for an NFL team.
Category: Football
