The Cleveland Browns have had arguably the worst quarterback situation in the NFL since, well, the franchise was reborn in 1999. No other NFL team has had as many starting quarterbacks during the last 26 seasons as Cleveland’s 40, and it appears that they are in a position to add to that total in 2025.
While the Browns did reach an agreement to bring back 40-year-old Joe Flacco, who won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award after starting five games for the Browns (and going 4-1) in 2023, they also drafted two other quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Cleveland took Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel in the third round and, of course, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders in the fifth.
Cleveland Browns Quarterback Shedeur Sanders Slid in the 2025 NFL Draft
In the months, weeks, and days leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft, many experts and analysts believed that Sanders, the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, would be a top-five pick. The former Buffalo sure acted like a projected top pick, not working out at the NFL Scouting Combine and refusing to play in any postseason All-Star games to showcase his skills.
With the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans took Miami quarterback Cam Ward, which was expected as they had informed him of their intentions days prior. But quarterback needy team after quarterback needy team selected players at other positions in the first round.
That is, except when the New York Giants traded back into the first round to take a quarterback. But it was not Sanders. It was Jaxson Dart.
Sanders sat through the whole first round and did not hear his name called. Mel Kiper, ESPN’s lead draft expert, was beside himself with rage. Even President Donald Trump took to social media to express his outrage that the Colorado star was not a first round pick.
And it only got worse for Sanders. Day Two came and went, but he was not taken in the second or third rounds. In the meantime, Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich’s son prank called Sanders pretending to be an NFL representative, getting his hopes up that he had finally been drafted.
It was not until the fifth round that the Browns selected Sanders with their final pick.
Former NFL MVP Boomer Esiason Reveals Why Shedeur Sanders Fell to the Fifth Round
On Monday, former NFL MVP Boomer Esiason told his radio listeners that the reason Sanders fell so far in the draft had nothing to do with his play on the field.
It had everything to do with his behavior and, to a certain extent, that of his father’s:
“Shedeur Sanders just torpedoed himself. His attitude off the field, at the combine. His dad didn’t help him, either. He was on podcasts talking about, ‘This is my son. If I can get him to where I want to get him to, I’m going to do that.’ But when you listen to this kid talk, right prior, or at the combine, about ‘If you want a new culture in your locker room, I’m the guy to do that. I can turn it around.’ I mean, he’s very high on himself.
“And I think he was very, very off-putting to many, many coaches and general managers in the league. And I’m telling you right now, and I know this after talking to three different personnel people in the NFL this weekend, they didn’t even have him on their board. They took him off. And they took him off, because the owner said, ‘Take him off. I don’t want that guy. I don’t want this entitled person on our team.”
Now, instead of being viewed as the future franchise quarterback of an NFL team, Sanders needs to earn a roster spot on a team that has had the worst quarterback room in the league since 1999. What is more, he is not even guaranteed a spot. As it stands, he is QB3 on the Browns depth chart, at best.
More Cleveland Browns News from Gridiron Heroics
- Browns Reach 1-Year Deal with Veteran WR After the 2025 NFL Draft
- Donald Trump Takes Credit for Shedeur Sanders Pick
- New Video of Deion Sanders Reacting to Team Passing on Shedeur Goes Viral
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