Shedeur Sanders’ journey to being the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns could be more fraught than initially thought.
Since being hyped as a top-five pick as recently as December of 2024, he not only had a very public fall from grace in the eyes of talent evaluators, members of the press, and executives around the NFL, but he’s still buried deep in the Browns’ depth chart.
If Not Sanders, Who Is Going To Be the Browns’ Starter?
Apparently, no one really knows, but Mike Florio said on NBC’s Pro Football Talk that it doesn’t matter who ends up being the starter in Cleveland, since all four men in the quarterback room will be on the hot seat.
“Whoever starts, and we know how this is going to go, whoever starts is probably gonna get benched,” Florio said. “That’s why I think it’s so important to get Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders real reps. Let’s find out if they can be the answer because the broader question here is what’s the quarterback position going to look like in 2026.”
Adding to the intrigue is former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who says that Sanders isn’t even in the top two for the starting job. Instead, he’s not even in a conversation for the backup job.
“I was told by somebody that’s in the building, that ain’t a player, it’s really coming down to Kenny Pickett or Dillon Gabriel,” – @housh84 via @NightcapShow_ on the Browns QB competition.
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/XjaCvewlma
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) June 26, 2025
“I was told by somebody that’s in the building, that ain’t a player, it’s really coming down to Kenny Pickett or Dillon Gabriel,” Houshmandzadeh said on the Nightcap Show.
If that’s the case, then what happens to Sanders? Does he go to the bench and develop? Is he moved to the practice squad? Or does what once seemed unthinkable happen, and he gets released?
Well, PFSN’s Joe DeLeone predicts that the Browns will be so bad in 2025 that they will draft first overall next April and take Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Either way, it seems that Sanders is on the outside looking in and not getting meaningful reps with the first team.
As others have pointed out, lower round picks have turned into top-end starters. Inevitable comparisons to Brock Purdy and Tom Brady will be linked to Sanders, but this is a unique situation.
Sanders is competing with Gabriel, who was drafted ahead of him, Pickett, a 2022 first-rounder who has something to prove, and Joe Flacco, the 2023 AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year award winner.
The key for any bubble player is to get reps, and right now, it seems as though Sanders has an uphill battle to garner enough of them.
