Shedeur Sanders has been one of the more intriguing names to watch as the draft process played out. Once projected to go as high as the third round, he ended up falling to the fifth. Now, he’s caught in a four-man quarterback battle in Cleveland — and there’s already a presumed starter.
“If I was a betting man, Joe Flacco is gonna go into the year as the starter,” Fitzpatrick said. “He has history there, he has success there, and I think it’s a great story. He’s a guy that’ll bring calm, he’s the guy that’s going to be able to get them off on the right foot,” former NFL QB Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “As the season goes along, when you draft guys early, and when you have young exciting guys, they’re excited for Gabriel, we could see him inserted into the lineup.”
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After being selected by the Browns, Sanders was quickly labeled a camp body by Emmanuel Acho.
“The reality for Shedeur Sanders is this: As a 5th round pick, it rarely matters how talented you are, you may never even get the opportunity to win the starting job,” Acho said. “Sometimes as a 5th, 6th, 7th round pick, they are already cutting you. You are a camp body, you are there for training camp.”
So far, Sanders has mostly been off to the side at practice, throwing to equipment staff — making it extremely difficult to gain traction in the QB race without meaningful reps. But not everyone thinks his story ends in Cleveland. Former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel Sr. believes he could be traded to a team in desperate need of a quarterback.
“He goes out there and does something like he did today, nine for nine, two touchdowns, 32 other teams are watching,” Samuel said. “Oh man, this might be the first time we see in history that something bizarre happens where a team tries to make a trade for him, like the Indianapolis Colts.”
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Sanders is clearly looking for an opportunity — and it doesn’t seem like that opportunity will come in Cleveland. The Colts could be an ideal landing spot, especially in case of emergency. Anthony Richardson hasn’t fully lived up to the hype, and Daniel Jones is the only real fallback option. Sanders may very well emerge as a potential starter in Indianapolis.