At one point, he was projected to be a first-round pick, and maybe even in the top five of the NFL Draft. Then, he fell all the way to the fifth round to the Cleveland Browns.
There, Shedeur Sanders found himself as QB3 behind fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel and veteran Joe Flacco early in the season, taking what once appeared to be a promising career and seemingly bringing it to a halt.
Late in the year, Sanders got his chance, though, and ultimately went 3-4 as a starter, throwing for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns, and 10 interceptions for the Browns.
Despite the strong close to his rookie season, Sanders’ pre-draft process and rookie season are still being talked about by his father, Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.
During an appearance on The Barbershop with Garrett Bush on YouTube, Deion Sanders says Shedeur went through “hell” in the pre-draft process and during his rookie season in Cleveland, and believes he’ll be better off for it moving forward, especially with Todd Monken in charge as the Browns’ head coach.
“When he takes off his shirt, I see the scars on his back that he’s been through hell, but he’s made it through hell,” Deion said on “The Barbershop,” according to a video via the show’s YouTube page. “He kept going, and he matured, not like he was a child, but he matured spiritually.”
Sanders’ “hell” he was referring to was the pre-draft process, where reports surfaced in the weeks leading up to the draft that the former Jackson State and Colorado standout quarterback was a bad interview, wearing headphones into meetings, being standoffish with teams he didn’t expect to draft him, and more.
It also didn’t help that, in those reports, Sanders was struggling to handle some of the board work that teams were giving him from a schematic standpoint, as well as discussing what went wrong on certain plays in Colorado, where, according to Albert Breer, Sanders failed to take the blame.
Couple that with some of the concerning tape he had, like drifting in the pocket, trusting his arm too much to fit into tight windows, and more, and it made some sense that Sanders wasn’t a first-round quarterback. Falling all the way to the fifth round, though, was shocking, especially with a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers under head coach Mike Tomlin passing on him multiple times after the Steelers hosted him for a pre-draft visit and Tomlin spoke highly of him.
It led to him landing in Cleveland, which created another firestorm for the young quarterback. Some of the things that were said and written about Sanders behind the scenes in Cleveland frustrated his father. Ultimately, though, the young quarterback was able to get on the field and show some flashes.
How that sets him up for Year 2 remains to be seen. DeShaun Watson is back healthy and has the inside track for the starting job under Monken, while Sanders will battle it out with Gabriel for the backup job, at least right now.
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