Shedeur Sanders is fully focused on beating Deshaun Watson for the starter job with the Cleveland Browns, but no matter the result, he’ll be in the spotlight. Entering his second season in the league, Sanders remains under scrutiny, especially in the middle of a true battle in training camp.
Shedeur Sanders Highlights Authenticity as Key Component of a Role Model
The second-year quarterback has been the subject of many discussions since he fell to the fifth round of the 2025 draft, and his performances as a rookie didn’t really help his case. Still, he was the starter in three of the five games the Browns won last season, which ended with Kevin Stefanski being fired after six years.
The Browns were unable to draft a quarterback in 2026, with a relatively weaker quarterback class highlighted by Fernando Mendoza going first overall to the Las Vegas Raiders. As such, Sanders has another opportunity to prove he can be the leader for the franchise, provided he wins the quarterback battle against Watson.
As training camp ramps up, Sanders stopped for an interview with the Browns’ in-house team. Among the discussions, the quarterback was asked about his leadership style and how he wants his teammates to be. The message was clear: authenticity is the key to making things easy and fun.
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“I would say, overall, just be yourself. You don’t do anything odd or weird; just be yourself. At this point in life, people love genuine, people love authentic, and people love realness. That’s what I love the most about the teammates: if they don’t like something, they don’t like it. That’s why it’s real fun”, Sanders said.
The second-year passer has seen his fair share of adversity in the past year. After dropping to the fifth round, he was the third quarterback to start a game for the Browns in 2025, with Cleveland limping to the end of the season. The wide receiver group was weak, and the entire offense struggled, with a 54.0 grade that ranked it the worst in the league per our PFSN Offense Impact Metric.
Individually, Sanders wasn’t much better. He threw for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions, winning three out of seven games as a starter. He ranked No. 37 in the PFSN QB Impact Metric last season with a 63.0 rating.
While there are arguments to give the starter job to Sanders to unearth what he can do, the counterargument is clear: if he can’t beat Watson, who hasn’t played well in half a decade and is returning from a torn Achilles, then the battle might be lost.
