What in the world was going on with Shedeur Sanders today?
Things haven’t gone according to plan for the son of Deion Sanders ever since the first night of the 2025 NFL Draft. Shedeur Sanders was FINALLY drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round with the 144th pick. Following the end of the college football season, Sanders was a lock by many draft analysts to not only be a first round pick… but a top 10 pick. It was as unprecedented a slide as sports fans have ever seen.
Then, Sanders found himself in a crowded QB room fighting for a roster spot. At one point, there were five quarterbacks rostered on the Browns. Now, there’s four (Kenny Pickett was traded away), with one being the player who holds what could be the worst contract in the history of sports: Deshaun Watson. And since he’s inured, it has really just come down to veteran Joe Flacco, rookie Dillon Gabriel, and another rookie QB in Shedeur Sanders.
When the season started, Flacco was the starter, Gabriel was the backup, and Sanders was labeled as the third string quarterback. After a couple of rough outings, the Cleveland Browns decided to bench Flacco, and promoted Dillon Gabriel to the starting position. So you’d think that would mean Shedeur would move up to QB2, right?
Wrong.
Flacco remains the backup, even though he was benched for poor play. But apparently not poor enough to slide him all the way down the depth chart? The fact that Sanders remains the QB3 has gotten a lot of attention online, and even Shedeur himself was left speechless by the decision… literally.
During time with the media today, Shedeur Sanders was asked questions like “What do you think you have to show the coaches to have the belief in you that you’re ready?” and “How much has Joe been important to both you and Dillon in terms of your guys’ development to this point?” The rookie quarterback answered those questions and more by not saying anything at all, but still moving his lips as if he was talking.
It might be the first ever pantomimed interview in the NFL… and it came off as really weird:
There’s some speculation that Sanders did that because ESPN analyst Rex Ryan tore into him and said that all Shedeur does is “talk and run his mouth.” So the above video where Sanders neither talked nor ran his mouth (does mouthing words still count as running?) could be the rookie QB’s answer to his critic. Regardless, it was a strange moment for the media, and one that will certainly get a lot of attention.
It could be the new story that surrounds Shedeur Sanders. The older story (other than his precipitous fall in the draft) that was following the Browns rookie around as of late? It was revealed that Sanders was turning down teams that were interested in picking him earlier in the draft.
Adam Schefter first reported that the Ravens were planning to select Sanders in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, but decided not to when Shedeur made it known that he didn’t want to back up Lamar Jackson. Instead, the quarterback out of Colorado went a couple of picks later to the Cleveland Browns.
Shedeur’s father – A.K.A. Coach Prime – defended his son’s disinterest in not going to Baltimore. The only problem now? Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is hurt, and could be sidelined for three or more weeks. It was originally the plan for Baltimore to have Shedeur be Lamar’s backup… so Sanders could have very well been in line to start in the NFL for the first time in his career this week.
Instead? He’s in quarterback purgatory as a Cleveland Brown, and still listed as QB3 behind a now-benched, 40-year-old Joe Flacco. To borrow a line from the great Alanis Morissette…. isn’t it ironic?
