Heading into the 2026 NFL season, the Cleveland Browns have one of the most unappealing quarterback room situations with Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders, and Dillon Gabriel.
With the lack of a clear franchise quarterback going forward, one Browns analyst suggests that a “Tim-Tebow” like trade could save Sanders’ young career.
Ken Carman Defends Shedeur Sanders From Criticism
On “The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima,” the two analysts talked about a potential Sanders trade that would save the quarterback’s career.
“The couple of beat writers that we’ve had on in the past would disagree with me,” Carman said. “But I think that he’s shown that if you were able to come in where you were throwing to trash cans before and conduct yourself in some way as a starting quarterback in the second half of the season, I would say, ‘Yeah, we’ve given a lot of chances to a lot of different brands of garbage out there. Why wouldn’t we give another chance, if I was another team, to a guy like Shedeur Sanders?”
In addition to that, Carman talked more about some of the promise Sanders has shown, and two potential teams that could take a chance on him:
“You’ve [Shedeur] proven you have some sort of a live arm,” Carman added. “You’ve proven that you’re able to conduct some sort of an offense. Why wouldn’t I be willing to kick the tires on you, especially if I was one of the better franchises in the NFL? Say that he were to get cut after this year. What’s stopping the Rams from giving him a chance? What’s stopping the Seattle Seahawks from giving him a chance?”
Carman then talked about how a team like the Los Angeles Rams could be able to get the best out of Sanders.
“It would take a franchise that’s secure,” Carman said. “Because he does have a following. It is a bit Tim Tebow-esque in certain aspects. You’d have to be very secure in who you have. Like Sean McVay, I think he’d easily take him on, and I think everybody would be fine, and it might be a much better situation for Shedeur after this coming season.”
With an offensive mastermind like McVay and a great, potentially even Hall of Fame quarterback to sit behind in Matthew Stafford. Even though this is just a proposal and nothing is set in stone, it’s certain that with the current Browns roster, Sanders will not thrive or reach his full potential.
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During his rookie season, Sanders started seven games after replacing fellow rookie quarterback Gabriel, who suffered a concussion.
In eight total games, Sanders completed 56.6% of passes for 1,400 passing yards, 7 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. In 21 attempts on the ground, he added 169 yards and 1 touchdown. According to PFSN’s NFL Quarterback Impact Metric, Sanders ranked as the third-worst quarterback (46th in the league) with an impact score of 56.9 and a letter grade of F.
