Shedeur Sanders was a projected first-round pick in this year’s NFL draft, expected to go top three. However, fate had a different plan for Coach Prime’s son. He fell to the fifth round of the draft, where the Cleveland Browns then acquired him with the 144th pick.
On Saturday’s episode of “Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul,” they discussed the criticism that Shedeur received during his draft process. Kellerman suggested that the 2024 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm winner was the target of racial discrimination that resulted in his draft fall.
“Shedeur, I think, becomes a kind of racial flash point,” Kellerman said (Timestamp-51:55). I think this breaks down along racial lines. There’s some athletes that come along and people don’t always want to say it, but I think it’s there. I think that he had something about his personality.
“Your hear like the Giants hated his inteview. … You heard that he had a really awful interview with the Giants, but then again, the Giants were a bad franchise. Who knows why that went sideways. … I think there’s a reaction among people who it feels like are entrenched in power and a lot of them are white who say this guy isn’t good. … So I think that becomes without anyone putting a name to it, there’s like this undercurrent there that is correlated at least to kind of racial tension.”
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Apart from Shedeur Sanders, the Browns drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round with the 94th pick. He was named the starter after the team’s disappointing 1-3 start under veteran Joe Flacco.
However, the team continued to struggle on the offense. Gabriel suffered a concussion during their 23-16 loss to the Ravens in Week 11. Shedeur made his debut during the second half of that game before being named the starting quarterback.
In the past three games, Shedeur Sanders helped the team to a 1-3 record. The quarterback has tallied 769 yards and five TDs passing. Following his performance during last week’s loss to the Titans, coach Kevin Stefanski decided to retain him as the QB1 for the remainder of the season.
Retired 2x Super Bowl champion compares Shedeur Sanders to Bears QB Caleb Williams
The Browns face the Chicago Bears this Sunday. Ahead of the game, retired two-time Super Bowl champion LeSean McCoy shared his thoughts on the showdown between Shedeur Sanders and Caleb Williams.
On Friday’s episode of the “Speakeasy” podcast, McCoy gave his vote of confidence to Coach Prime’s son as the better quarterback in this Week 15 contest.
“I think if he beats Caleb Williams, I think he’s better than Caleb Williams,” McCoy said. “We keep forgetting that this kid’s only been starting for two weeks. He’s only had two weeks as a full starter.
“I don’t count the first game when he played. He ain’t had no reps. He ain’t know the game plan for him. That game plan was for Dillon Gabriel. Now he’s in a game plan for himself, the plays he likes. Now his head coach ain’t acting like he ain’t Shedeur. Right now, he lets that swagger go.”
The Browns vs Bears game kicks off at 1 p.m. ET. Shedeur Sanders and his team are dead last in the AFC North with a 3-10 record.