Long before he set foot on an NFL gridiron, Shedeur Sanders was already one of the most polarizing figures in the sport.
Then, when he slipped from a projected top-10 selection to the fifth round and the No. 144 spot, the Colorado product was the primary talking point around the league.
That’s why it’s not much of a surprise to hear that the Cleveland Browns‘ rookie was one of the most lucrative characters in the sport last season.
According to Daniel Kaplan of Front Office Sports, Sanders led all players in group licensing income, and it wasn’t particularly close.
Shedeur Sanders sets an NFL record in sales
“But now the heavily-hyped son of Deion Sanders is laughing all the way to the bank, as he earned a record-shattering $17.7 million in group licensing income over the course of the season, according to the NFL Players Association annual report filed this week with the Department of Labor,” Kaplan wrote. “The prior record was Tom Brady’s $9.5 million in the 2021-2022 season.”
For context and comparison, Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy led all players with roughly $4 million in the previous season.
Love him or hate him, Shedeur Sanders always finds ways to be in the spotlight, even when he isn’t talking.
For better or worse, the Cleveland Browns knew exactly what they were getting into when they rolled the dice on him in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
They had to deal with plenty of unwanted media attention and fans criticizing now-fired head coach Kevin Stefanski for not giving him the keys to the offense right out of the gate.
Now that Deshaun Watson is likely to beat him for the QB1 job, according to several reports, it’ll be interesting to see how new head coach Todd Monken handles this situation.
Regardless, one thing’s for sure: Sanders will continue to draw thousands of eyeballs.
