The Cleveland Browns find themselves in an interesting situation. The Browns had the No. 2 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft before trading down of the No. 5 pick. Yet, the player selected with the fifth pick is not the team's most well-known draft pick or the most talked about.
With the fifth pick, the Browns selected Michigan defensive lineman Mason Graham, who was an All-American selection. Graham was an interior force at Michigan, winning a National Championship as a sophomore and recording 45 tackles, seven tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks in his junior campaign before entering the draft.
Yet, the Browns' fifth-round selection, Shedeur Sanders, who the team took with the No. 144 overall selection, has by far been the talk of the Browns' offseason, despite being taken two days after Graham.
Sanders is the son of Hall of Fame two-way phenom Deion Sanders, who also served as his coach at Colorado. Sanders was once a projected first-round pick, but reportedly tanked his draft stock in pre-draft interviews.
Despite being the clear ranking member of the draft class, Graham has taken a backseat to Sanders in terms of media attention. On Friday, Graham addressed the disparity.
“That doesn’t really matter to me,“ Graham said via Ashley Bastock of cleveland.com. ”I come to play football. If the media’s on me, then they’re on me. If the media’s not, then it’s not. I’m just going to do my job at the end of the day."
Graham also indicated that he and Sanders had met for the first time, and things went swimmingly.
"He was cool,” Graham said. “Seems like a good dude and it was all about ball. So I want to play with guys that are like-minded.”
Graham is set to be an immediate starter and standout for the Browns' defense. Meanwhile, Sanders will be fighting for a roster spot in a heavily-contested quarterback room that features another recent draftee, in 2025 third-round selection Dillon Gabriel, as well as a pair of veterans in Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco. The team also has Deshaun Watson in their back pocket, who is likely to miss this season with an achilles injury.