NFL Exec Shades Browns Taking Shedeur Sanders, 'Too Hard for a Team Like' Them to Pass

Even though the Cleveland Browns’ selection of Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft was widely praised as a great value pick, the organization’s entire process to getting there is the subject of scrutiny from people within the league. 

Speaking to The Athletic’s Mike Sando, the consensus opinion from NFL executives was that the Browns don’t “necessarily have a vision for the collective” based on taking Sanders after they used a third-round pick on Dillon Gabriel. 

One executive told Sando went so far as to say it was “too hard for a team like the Browns” to pass up on Sanders in a way that wasn’t complimentary toward them:

“You like some of the pieces, but there is the glue that has never been there. Most teams had Sanders rated as a second-round pick, but when you are building a team, you have to include the intangibles and the other stuff and decide whether you want it or not. For most teams at that stage, it was not worth it. So he falls a couple rounds, and it’s too hard for a team like the Browns to pass on him.”

In isolation, the Browns’ trading up for the 144th pick to take Sanders was a good bit of business. He was being projected as a first-round pick hours before the draft started on April 24. 

When you look at it in the context of Cleveland spending the 94th pick on another quarterback in Gabriel, then you start to wonder if one hand knows what the other is doing. 

NFL insider James Palmer said after the draft that people around the league are saying Sanders’ selection was driven by Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, rather than a collective decision that included general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski (starts at 4:12 mark).

When you consider all of the roster needs the Browns have, investing two mid-round picks on the quarterback spot when they could have filled another spot seems confusing. 

It’s not common for teams to double-dip at quarterback in the draft, though it has happened three times in the last four years. The Browns are the 11th team to do so since the seven-round format was adopted in 1994, but the gap between the Gabriel and Sanders selections is the smallest on record.

The Browns taking Gabriel also offers insight into how their draft board was lined up. If they had Sanders ranked ahead of Gabriel, they would have taken him in the third round.

There's nothing inherently wrong with giving yourself as many options at quarterback as possible, especially given what the Browns' situation looked like going into the draft when they had Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett penciled in as the top two players on the depth chart.

Deshaun Watson remains under contract, but his status for 2025 is unclear after reinjuring his Achilles in January.

Now, Stefanski and the coaching staff will enter OTAS and training camp needing to figure out where all of these quarterbacks will land on the depth chart. It's a difficult task to undertake for an organization that has been starved for any semblance of stability at that position for years so the infamous jersey can finally be retired.