Entering the draft, the Browns were among the teams seen as a logical landing spot for a rookie quarterback. The team did wind up adding at the position, although not in the way they (or many others) anticipated. 
Cleveland declined to draft a signal-caller until late in the third round when Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel was added. That move seemed to close the door to Shedeur Sanders being selected, but on Saturday the Browns moved up into the fifth round to acquire the Colorado product. More details have emerged regarding the latter’s slide down the order.
[RELATED: Giants Considered Sanders Trade-Up; Teams Took QB Off Draft Boards?]
Sanders met with one team at the Combine which discussed an interception dating back to his college career (with breakdowns of such plays being standard practice), as detailed by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. He writes Sanders declined to take the blame when speaking about the play, and added his feelings that he and the team may not be the best match for one another. Per Breer, a different visit resulted in a disagreement between Sanders and an NFL coach when he failed to recognize intentional mistakes in a hypothetical offensive install.
Off-the-field factors have been cited as presumed reasons why Sanders – once viewed as being in the running to be drafted as high as second overall by the Browns and the subject of considerable scouting attention this season – fell all the way to pick No. 144. Being the son of Deion Sanders has long been regarded as an element of drafting Shedeur which would give many NFL teams pause. As ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Daniel Oyefusi report, though, multiple evaluators assigned a late first-round grade on Sanders while many others listed him as a Day 2 pick. A slide out of the top of the order thus came as little surprise, but remaining on the board as late as he did comprised one of the draft’s top talking points.
“I feel like in life, there’s always a way I can improve,” Sanders said (via Oyefusi). ” I’m able to improve. And some things that I [did] that seemed right at the time, I could’ve went about it a different way. I think what happened was I had a great interview and had a great process with the Browns, and that’s why they were able to pick me. So anything outside the organization is really a [non-factor] for me now.”
Sanders is now a member of a quarterback room which includes veteran Joe Flacco and trade acquisition Kenny Pickett along with Gabriel. General manager Andrew Berry noted (via the ESPN report) the Browns did not expect to draft two passers this weekend. Since they have, though, the team’s QB situation will be an interesting storyline to follow as the offseason unfolds.
The Browns might be the dumbest team In any sport ever
Or the smartest. They’re going to have what other teams are going to need.
Definitely not the smartest. No matter how you spin it hahahahahaha.
From google: Since 2000, the Cleveland Browns have a record of 139-264-1.
Please show us the smart part of the Browns.
With 38 different starting QBs since 1999. That’s incompetence (even worse than stupidity).
The smartest team was the Ravens. They up and left Cleveland in the middle of the night. Best decision ever.
I’m a Steelers fan
I like the city of Cleveland. I like the city of Baltimore
But you’ll have to excuse me. What Modell did was the ultimate scumbag, cowardly move
Up there with Irsay moving the Colts in the middle of the night from Baltimore to Indy.
And will trade it for draft picks that they’ll squander in the future.
are you trying to imply they cornered the market on below average QBs lol
If They weren’t before drafting Sanders, they certainly are now.
They are definitely a dumpster fire but I don’t hate what they did here. It’s the most important position and very hard to anticipate how a QB will transition to the NFL so having two while not typical gives them another shot at hitting on one of them. The only issue being the reps. Can a QB develop without consistent NFL snaps? I think Sanders fell so far someone had to take a chance
Some still don’t get how humility is a strength, not a weakness. His arrogance and ignorance cost him millions now and probably more in the future as being drafted this late usually means the team drafting isn’t going to go out of their way to set you up as their franchise QB. For instance, Cam Ward will be given every opportunity to be the franchise QB. To make things even worse, now you’re stuck in Cleveland for 3-4 years Not exactly a Prime(pun intended) place to live.
He’s only stuck in Cleveland if he’s on the roster.
True. If things don’t go optimally, young Sanders might be calling Winnipeg, Regina or Edmonton home.
And I’ll add this here: I’m laughing at the people who have said it would have been better if Shedeur had gone undrafted and then he could “pick his team.” Yeah right. Like he gets to show up at some team’s facility and declare he’s playing for them. You’d still need a team that would agree to bring him in.
“His arrogance and ignorance cost him millions.” Man, people love making comments like this about people they’ve never met and decisions made about them by people they’ve never met.
Was it his skill that cost him millions?
I think if teams thought he was a better on field prospect with more upside, he wouldn’t have fallen past the second. But the idea that we know “arrogance and ignorance” are what made him fall is goofy. Some people are in a weird hurry to believe the worst about a young stranger based on not much.
I’d bet real money that his personality cost him dearly. It’s the same out here in the real world. My coworkers with real talent could get away with a lot. But the less-talented, and same disposition, would be the first to go.
Again, virtually every story told by every reporter, indicated that he blew every interview. I mean he took a face-time call in the middle of an interview. He told another GM that they weren’t the right team for him. Argued with Daboll. Those are just the stories we heard. You saw his draft room, right?
I wanted my Raiders to take a shot at him. But there is no denying just how off-putting he is.
His dad cost him millions. A smart agent could have helped get him into the second, if not first round, despite a somewhat suspect skill set.
That’s what I posted about on Saturday. They both represented themselves with Daddy helping them. Later that day I heard shilo didn’t like the way the draft was going and didn’t think his dad was helping only hurting them and shilo went and hired a professional agent that day lol.
Well, it obviously did. I can’t read a FB column without seeing an article about a GM interview that went seriously sideways.
There were also reports of some meetings going well. This idea that he definitely fell because of “arrogance and ignorance” is not exactly a substantiated fact.
Now, now. They have their narrative, and they believe everything these teams tell them through their media mouthpieces.
Cool story…but are they wrong? Nnnnope.
While I generally agree with the sentiment that we’re not in a position to make very in depth character assumptions about pro athletes as fans, the information is out there that teams pivoted away from Sanders based on his behavior during the draft process (interviews, no combine, clips online, etc.). It definitely effected when he got picked, even if the larger reason he wasnt picked high was talent related
People claiming there’s no evidence he interviewed poorly, as if those teams that needed a good QB prospect would have left him on the board, especially after the first three or four rounds. Cleveland coaches even seemed embarrased to be the ones to pick.
This is the thing I push back on because anyone who has been around pro athletes and coaches and everyone else to do with the game would tell you that their behavior has no correlation to whether they can play or do their job or not, but you fans eat it up, so I’ll let you keep eating it. Bill Belichick right now is actively being made to look like a fool with a 24 year old girl; Sean Payton probably stole Vicodin out of the Saint equipment room, not to mention all of the issues we’ve seen from great players who were studs on the field. It more underlines that the people lying like they only make football decisions didn’t do that, but if you’ve been paying attention, that’s always been the case.
While I agree football teams will largely look past character issues in favor of talent, to pretend that teams arent tired of toxic players who also have lesser talent is just wrong.
This is the reason why, for example, a player like Dionte Johnson keeps finding jobs on super WR needy teams just to get cut from said super WR needy teams. There is a level where their talent doesnt make up for the headache they might bring and you just watched it unfold in the draft and are still in denial
Furthermore, if they didnt care about their character in the slightest they wouldnt even hold interviews. But they do hold interviews, so your point is gone.
They need something to sell suckers like you who believe this is similar to interviewing for a regular job. We’ve long known the draft process is a farce that they’ve just turned into a highly rated TV show when they could just call all these players right after the college season is over and get them on teams. They’ve literally been scouting these players since they were sophomores or juniors in college, but you think this three month window is illuminating to them, lol. Do you know how many low character people are in the NFL. I remember someone telling me about some of the stuff assistant coaches get up to on their off-time, and if you knew about how they get down, you wouldn’t feel safe with them in your neighborhood.
So instead of them simply caring about how a person would fit into their locker room (because clearly they do) its all just one big conspiracy to sell the… draft?
We already agree that largely they will ignore character issues in favor of talent, so no need to reiterate it like youre the only one who thinks this. Try re-reading my comment
Do you really need to be convinced that team chemistry and not putting up with locker room distractions is a real thing that teams have been caring about more and more or are you just going to keep pretending it doesnt matter to make yourself feel right about something?
When you have a camera crew with you every minute just like his daddy, you are not interested in being the go-to QB. When you don’t impress people that could be your future employer with your attitude in your interviews. Then you go to an NFL controlled tryout camp another word for combine and you don’t feel it necessary for you to participate in any of the combine because you see it as you are above all who are participating say a lot. Then go into a job interview where a coach asks you to look over a few plays then come back and discuss them, he shows up for a second interview and totally blows it off and says he did not look at the plays. That tell an employer all he needs to know, how will he be prepping for a 17-game season. Nope he may have the raw talent, but that is not a complete QB when he doesn’t communicate about what the mental part of a QB has to work at. I would not draft him.
Interesting article on CBS S Sanders threw most of his passes last year on screens which raised his completion %.
link to cbssports.com
Yeah I think >80% of his completions were fewer than 5 yards downfield
So in other words, the Browns have an additional Kenny Pickett type of QB
This is all gonna go over so well with ultimate team player Diontae Johnson
Well when you have turnstiles trash cans and dumpster fires on your oline letting immediate pressure though you definitely have time to throw screen passes short passes not so much down the field passes.
The kid was sacked even before his receivers ran their routes a lot of times.
It’s the same thing that they knocked Bo Nix about a year ago. It has nothing to do with whether he’ll succeed in the league or not.
It does, depending on why those passes were chosen. It could be a factor, it could not, but to eliminate from consideration is not going to produce accurate results.
“I had a great interview and had a great process with the Browns, and that’s why they were able to pick me.”
=====================
It was such a great interview that they drafted him in the 5th, with very little available, and behind a guy that, sadly, I know nothing about.
I’m going to agree with Oooof to a certain extent. It seems like some scouts and coaches who interviewed Sanders were just gauging if he could be used as a fall guy. They wanted him to accept blame and account for his mistakes but how willing are they to do likewise when they screw up? The concept that humility is required to succeed as a QB is rather naive. Aaron Rodgers is proof of that.
I’d assume that all QBs go through the same interview process. I’s also assume that no one interviews draft picks looking for players to blame. There were just too many stories about how badly the interviews went.
You could be right but I think the interview process is far more intensive for players projected to go early in the draft than someone seen as a late round possible. There are plenty of people who can ace interviews but not meet expectations on the performance end and vice versa.
Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not, we don’t know the guy (I will point out that, despite Deion’s best efforts to consider him and the other players such, Shedeur is not a “kid” but an adult).
I personally won’t make a final judgement based on rumor. But I will point out, for the sake of fair argument, that many of the people protesting this fact in favor of Shedeur have also bought in to the same types of unsubstantiated stories about other players or people. I’ve seen posts from these same people disparaging other players based on rumor-the idea that a college player is immune by virtue of being in college is a bit hypocritical.
Ideally, we would keep this sentiment in mind when we consider someone else in the same way. But, at the same time, when you have a ton of corroborating stories, it would be unwise to claim that they simply can’t be true. Committing to either position, without firsthand knowledge, is a possibly a course away from truth. You can acknowledge that indicators exist while still acknowledging that they’re just indicators and not solid fact. With as many specifics as are present with Shedeur, it’s be unwise to completely ignore them, especially in light of his historic fall.
“While Shedeur Sanders has his sights set on an NFL career, there’s a CFL team that’s leaving its door open just in case.
The Toronto Argonauts have reportedly added quarterback Shedeur Sanders to their exclusive negotiation list.”
This fuels it more that a favor would be owed to the browns to draft him. The miserable mad looks on there faces after the pick and this. Deion maybe promise something to them if they would draft him?
I agree that there was some external pressure applied to the Browns to draft him. The draft room shot tells all….not a single member of that room was happy. Wonder if it was the owner or even more to the point, the NFL offered the Browns something in the future to stop the slide. I don’t think the NFL wanted to deal with the repercussions of him not being drafted at all.
In many ways, if this was the case, the Browns are the perfect team for it. You could easily make a case for Sanders being relegated to the practice team. And if he gets cut in another year or two, he will simply fade into that group of formerly top picks like Wilson and Lance.
Maybe I’m wrong and my eyes deceive me. But Sanders is a better QB than Pickett and Gabriel, at the very least. Given how Flacco is old and Watson is just “lost” it would not surprise me to see him starting in relatively quick fashion
Then again, it’s not college ball
You’re right about the draft room: Not a single smile, high-five, fist bump, nothing. I suspect it was the owner—the infamous Jimmy Haslam—who insisted. He’s been known to interfere (Johnny Manziel; DeShaun Watson).
The browns are simply the browns.
Another circus act in Cleveland
They really could use Sonny Weaver Jr.
Or Dennis Weaver, for that matter
Is Cleveland ready for the Mustard Tiger?