The Cleveland Browns authored one of biggest storylines of this year's NFL Draft with their eventual move on Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round after he was expected by some to be a top-10 pick.
Some so-called experts thought his college success wouldn't translate to the NFL after he played in an up-tempo offense with the Buffaloes.
That's why it's surprising to some that Sanders is apparently adapting well to the huddle-first pro offense of the Browns - at least early in the summer.
And maybe the "adapting'' could earn him a climb up the depth chart that includes Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Sanders.
“You can see them all winning the job, I think, right?” coordinator Tommy Rees said. “And so in terms of the competition, we’re so early in the process. We’re so early in evaluating that. Yeah, I think, you know, we have a good group of guys that continue to push one another, and by the time September rolls around, we’ll be ready to go.”
There are those in the media who are pushing the Shedeur idea.
"Listen, in that building, there are people who believe that Shedeur can 100 percent be the starter of this football team," Martin said on ESPN's "Get Up" on Wednesday. "You said it's incumbent upon the Browns to put him in the situation, it’s also incumbent upon Shedeur to do the work, which, talking to people in that building, they've said he is soaking up everything like a sponge."
OK. Meanwhile ...
Rees offered intel on how the young quarterback is adapting during OTAs.
"He's worked his tail off. He's putting in a lot of work as all those guys are. You can tell on the mental side of the game, learning the system and calling it and having that rhythm to it, he's put a lot of time and work and effort into that," Rees said. "When you do that the game starts to slow down and you can focus on finding completions. He's done a good job of that as camp has progressed."
But here's the truth ...
Reports are that Sanders has been taking the fourth-string reps and has mostly been participating in 7-on-7 drills and not the 11-on-11 drills that the other quarterbacks have been engaged in.
So, hype aside, we're still a long way from getting an idea of how Sanders can adjust to the NFL. ... let alone be a starter.