Shedeur Sanders, Browns Agree to Reported 4-Year, $4.6M Contract After NFL Draft

Shedeur Sanders' NFL journey is officially underway.

The Cleveland Browns announced they signed the quarterback to his rookie contract on Monday. According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, it is a four-year, $4.6 million deal.

Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported Sanders' deal includes a $447,380 signing bonus.

The rookie contract is much less than expected at one point during the quarterback's final collegiate season at Colorado. After all, there was a time when he was seen as a surefire first-round pick and perhaps a candidate to hear his name called in the first handful of selections.

Instead, he slid all the way to the fifth round before the Browns finally ended his slide.

In the days following the draft, Spotrac projected his rookie contract to be four years and $4.6 million with a signing bonus of $446,553. As Front Office Sports pointed out, the drop into the fifth round was quite costly:

Sanders' fall became the biggest storyline of the draft.

After all, he is the son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders and won the 2024 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year thanks to an impressive final season at Colorado. He was a headline name before the draft even started, and his drop unsurprisingly generated plenty of headlines.

But the draft-day slide can be just a footnote in his career if he finds success with the Browns at the next level.

It will be easier said than done, though, in a crowded quarterback room.

Cleveland also selected Oregon's Dillon Gabriel in the third round of the 2025 NFL draft after adding Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett this offseason. That's not even taking Deshaun Watson into account, who has disappointed since arriving in Cleveland and is surrounded by plenty of uncertainty after suffering another Achilles injury.

Perhaps Sanders will outplay everyone else on the roster during training camp and the preseason and earn the starting role.

If he does, it wouldn't be surprising if he outperforms his draft slot considering how productive he was with the Buffaloes. And outperforming his draft slot is the surest way to earn a second contract that is larger than this first one.