Cleveland Browns Shedeur Sanders: Former Coach Pours Cold Water On Hot Start

The Cleveland Browns have one of the most interesting quarterback competitions this offseason. One of the reasons for this is that Shedeur Sanders is involved in it. His freefall in the 2025 NFL Draft was well-documented, and many are curious if he can make it in the NFL. Through the first few weeks of practice, Sanders has received glowing reports from many members of the media. This has led many to believe that he could overtake Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel for the starting job. Former NFL head coach and analyst Eric Mangini threw cold water on the Sanders hype train.

Cleveland Browns Shedeur Sanders Hot Start

ESPN Cleveland shared the numbers from all of the quarterbacks during the five open practices. Here is the breakdown of all four of the signal callers.

• Joe Flacco: 18-for-35 (51.4 percent), two touchdowns
• Kenny Pickett: 38-for-63 (60.3 percent), seven touchdowns
• Dillon Gabriel: 48-for-83 (57.8 percent), eight touchdowns
• Shedeur Sanders: 41-for-53 (77.4 percent), nine touchdowns, one interception

While these are just practices, those are impressive stats. He had the best completion percentage and most touchdown passes of any of the quarterbacks. The Cleveland Browns have been extremely happy with how he has performed. However, Mangini says that these numbers should be taken with extreme caution, as he isn’t going against the stiffest of competition.

“All of his reps have been with the backend guys. He hasn’t gotten any reps with the ones. That’s a good decision because as soon as he gets in with the ones, then the hype train is going to roll ever further. I say he numbers have to be taken with a gigantic grain of salt. There’s a lot of learning going on for him and to see the numbers, that’s positive, but he’s also working versus the backend of the roster, so his numbers should be a little bit higher just based on that, as well.”

What Do We Make Of His Start?

Mangini is right. We do have to roll back our expectations. Shedeur Sanders wouldn’t be the first player to look good in the first few weeks of practice and then not be able to handle the rigors of an actual game. Still, this isn’t nothing. The fact that he is coming in and putting in good practices shows he has potential in the NFL. The Cleveland Browns are in a position where they will probably want to see what they have out of both of their rookies at some point during the season.

Flacco is the favorite to get the starting gig. However, if the team starts 0-4 or 0-5, fans will clamor to give Sanders and maybe even Gabriel a shot. It will be interesting to see when training camp starts whether head coach Kevin Stefanski will give his rookies a shot with the first team offense.