Shedeur Sanders made the Cleveland Browns’ 53-man roster as a backup quarterback.
Sanders has a significant social media presence, generating substantial interest and scrutiny.
Despite a rough preseason finale, Sanders impressed with his post-game composure and media savvy.
He’s in. Obviously.
Shedeur Sanders survived the final cutdown on Tuesday and landed a spot on the 53-man Cleveland Browns roster, which is, well, probably old news to you.
If you didn’t get a notification on your smartphone, maybe you saw a Tweet or checked out a video. Somehow, in this day and age of instant digital action and reaction, you know.
Sanders, 23, can certainly throw a pretty mean football, tight and deadly accurate, which underscores his opportunity to further develop as a third-string quarterback. Yet the young man is pretty much Internet gold, too, which for better or worse, is part of his story, too.
After his free fall in the NFL Draft a few months ago generated a flood of conspiracy theories, Sanders now holds the distinction of being among the NFL’s most popular players while pegged to ride the bench, at least for now, with one of the league’s worst teams.
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Sure, Sanders, who led the NCAA in completion percentage while starring last season at Colorado, hopes to ultimately establish himself as an impact NFL quarterback – to change a franchise, as he’s put it – from his humble entry as a fifth-round rookie. Yet he’s also the one who isn’t quite like any and every fifth-round pick as his every move, performance or word tends to generate thousands of clicks. He moves the needle, as they say.
“It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen,” Tony Grossi, a talk radio host on ESPN Cleveland, told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “Social media just cranks it up to another level.”
Sanders’ high profile – and legion of haters − is also fueled by the exposure that he had while playing under his father. Since Coach Prime arrived in Boulder in 2023, Colorado became a de facto “Black America’s Team” on the college football landscape, boosted by the presence of its high-profile coach. And many of the fans (and presumably, detractors) who followed Shedeur’s college journey have come along to keep tabs on his NFL transition – which is one reason why his tumble in the draft coincided with the record TV ratings for the third day of the NFL Draft in April.
It should be noted, too, that Sanders’ preseason debut at Carolina, broadcast live on NFL Network, generated the highest ratings for a preseason game in 10 years.
In other words, love him or loathe him, it’s tough to ignore him.
That Sanders’ star power is wrapped in his enormous social media presence is another type of X-factor. Grossi can vouch for that. A light-hearted exchange between Sanders and Grossi following the preseason opener went viral. Grossi didn’t realize that Shedeur’s older brother, Deion, Jr., filmed the exchange for his “Well Off Media” site – I saw and heard it, standing less than 10 feet away – and that it made for a neat behind-the-scenes snippet.
Deion Sanders reveals Colorado football’s new starting quarterback
Sanders told Grossi that he hoped he’d have something positive to say about him after his big game. Grossi has been battered by Sanders followers as clips featuring talk-show comments about the rookie have circulated on social media. Smiling at Grossi, Sanders said, “You only say negative stuff about me. And I’m like, ‘I ain’t do nothing to you.”
But really, he knows. Critical analysis comes with the territory. And there was plenty of it after Sanders’ horrendous showing in the second half against the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday, when he hurt himself with poor decision-making and contributed greatly to his five sacks by holding onto the football too long in many cases.
Despite that, Grossi was impressed by Sanders’ reaction afterward.
“He stood in the locker room for an extra-long time and answered every single question,” Grossi said. “A lot of players hide in the training room after they’ve had tough games.”
And when someone asked Sanders if he felt he deserved a spot on the roster, he began a thoughtful response, with a single word, “Obviously,” before proceeding to explain how every player in the locker room believed similarly.
The snippet was edited and reposted on social media. However, the substance of Sanders’ response was diminished while the one-word message was circulated out of context, which suggested an air of arrogance and entitlement.
Grossi, though, already calls Sanders, “the most media-savvy athlete I’ve ever come across.” That’s saying a lot, and not just because of the relatively short time window since the Browns drafted Sanders. Grossi has covered the team for more than 40 years.
As an example, Grossi recalled a media session after a practice when Sanders paused while responding to a question because of the loud noise from a lawnmower. Grossi remembers Sanders saying: “That’s not good for content. I’ll hold up.”
No, you can’t knock his awareness.
Now if Sanders can consistently translate that to the football field – like when protection breaks down and he must quickly rip through progressions to connect with a “hot” receiver.
At least he’s positioned to continue the development. Drafted 144th overall, it would have been only so shocking if Sanders didn’t survive the cut. Yet his chances seemed to improve when Browns GM Andrew Berry maintained during an interview on the broadcast of the preseason finale that he wouldn’t have any qualms about keeping four quarterbacks.
On Monday night, the odds increased as the Browns traded Kenny Pickett, a fourth-year pro, to the Las Vegas Raiders. Pickett was obtained in an offseason trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, and was expected to compete for the starting job. Yet he spent much of training camp and the preseason nursing a hamstring injury.
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As expected, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski named 40-year-old Joe Flacco as the starter, backed up by Sanders and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel, a third-round rookie. The rookie quarterbacks have quite the benefit in learning the NFL ropes with a superb mentor in Flacco.
Behind the scenes, the rookie quarterbacks conceivably can jockey for their position on the depth chart. Gabriel has been listed ahead of Sanders since they were drafted, and the Oregon product’s solid preseason – he led the Browns to scores on five of his seven preseason drives, and was seven-of-nine on third downs – has been largely overshadowed by the buzz attached to Sanders. The preseason debates will likely continue.
As the No. 3 quarterback, it’s likely that Sanders will work in practices as the “scout team” quarterback, working plays from the opposing offense to prep Cleveland’s defense. Unless he supplants Gabriel as the No. 2 quarterback, Sanders will probably spend game days as the inactive “emergency” third quarterback.
That means Sanders will essentially be two snaps away from the lineup when the Browns open the season against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 7. But he’s here. He has the chance to continue his development, and who knows how fast that will progress and when and how the opportunities to play in real games are afforded. The key is that Sanders has stuck, positioned for growth.
Imagine, though, if Sanders didn’t survive the cut. The conspiracy theories might have been off the hook. After all, Sanders entered the preseason against the backdrop that he was set up to fail due to limited practice work with frontline players. He didn’t play in the second preseason game due to an oblique injury. After he stumbled in the preseason finale, a narrative persisted that suggested the Browns failed Sanders with Stefanski’s play-calling and the bottom-of-the-roster personnel around him. It should also be noted that Sanders didn’t exactly light it up himself.
Still, he survived. Obviously.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell
On Bluesky: jarrettbell.bsky.social