There is not a more intriguing fifth-round draft pick playing in the NFL this preseason than Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders. He made his first appearance for the Browns on Friday night in their preseason opener against the Carolina Panthers and delivered a pretty promising performance that may have given him a nice step forward in the team’s quarterback competition.
Sanders played most of the Browns’ 30-10 win over the Panthers, completing 14-of-23 passes for 138 yards, two touchdowns, zero interceptions and running for 19 yards on four carries.
He had the opportunity to play most of Friday’s game, given the injuries to Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel.
It was not a perfect performance by any means, and some of the pre-draft concerns that existed with Sanders were absolutely on display on Friday, including his tendency to hold on to the ball a little too long. While he only took two sacks, there were a handful of plays where he ran around in the backfield waiting for something to develop. It did not hurt him in this game against a Carolina defense that was one of the NFL’s worst a year ago and did not play its starters for more than a series. That sort of play may not work well against better defenses, and certainly not starting-caliber players.
But those are some of the growing pains and learning experiences that are going to come for a rookie quarterback. And there were far more positives than negatives in his play on Friday night.
The Browns didn’t ask him to do a ton, and gave him a lot of safe throws, but he demonstrated strong accuracy (one of his biggest strengths in college) and led multiple scoring drives before leaving the game.
He did what was asked, and he did it fairly well.
Sanders’ play and development are going to be one of the biggest storylines to follow in the NFL both this preseason and into the regular season.
He entered the 2025 NFL Draft process as one of the supposed top quarterback prospects in the class and seemed like a lock to go somewhere in the first round. He not only did not go in the first round, but he also fell to the fifth round and was not even the first quarterback selected by the Browns (they took Gabriel ahead of him).
In most cases, a fifth-round rookie would be an afterthought as part of a team’s quarterback competition. But this is not a normal circumstance. The Browns have a roster full of bad quarterback options, including veterans Joe Flacco and Pickett, as well as the two rookies. That does not even get into the mess that is Deshaun Watson if he is ever healthy enough to play this season. It is as wide-open a quarterback competition as you could ever have in the NFL. The injuries to Pickett and Gabriel opened another door for Sanders to potentially walk through.
On Friday, he did his part to start taking some steps toward it.
There is still a long way to go, but it was at least encouraging for him. As well as the Browns.
