Browns GM Says Shedeur Sanders' Focus Should Be Making Roster, Earning Role

Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry has made it clear that every player will work to earn their spot on the 53-man roster, including Shedeur Sanders.

Berry said that Sanders’ goal for the season should be to make the team and carve out a role, just like every other rookie on the roster.

“Yeah, I’d say it’s less about challenging him specifically and more about our rookies in general,” Berry said on 92.3 The Fan. “They’ve all got to come up the learning curve quickly. They’re in a new system, they’re in a new environment, they’re learning new skills kind of on the job. And Kevin’s message to them last night during the first team meeting was, hey, your focus is — I’m going to sound like a broken record here — but it’s to make the team, nobody here has made the team yet. So it’s making the team. And then after that, it’s earning a role. That’s the same thing for Shedeur.” 

Sanders was drafted in the fifth round at No. 144 overall. The Browns selected another quarterback—Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel—in the third round.

The team’s rookie minicamp kicked off Friday and was restructured to provide quality reps out of both quarterbacks, per Berry. According to Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot, Gabriel took the first reps in both the team’s 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 drills.

Berry added that it’s more about what the two rookies can get out of the next four months, which head coach Kevin Stefanski and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees have built a plan for. 

“We’ve typically taken four quarterbacks into camp,” Berry continued. “Now, the rep distribution had always been maybe a little bit different because we had a clearer or at least entrenched starter. And so this year, obviously, is a little bit different. But I think they’ve done a really nice job of designing the offseason programing and I think the plans that we have for training camp and the preseason, there will be plenty of reps to evaluate all four of those passers.” 

With a handful of unanswered questions for the Browns this offseason, the team is focused on putting its best players on the field, while Berry remains uninterested in the outside noise and reiterated the importance of earning their roles.

“I know it leads to a lot of conversation and interest in the media and externally— and understandably so,” Berry said. “But for us, we always talk about tuning out the external issues. That doesn’t really matter in terms of how we work, how we prepare. And in terms of Shedeur, his big thing is making the team and earning a role."