Even though five months have passed since night one of the 2025 NFL Draft, the unprecedented slide of Shedeur Sanders is proving to be as pertinent a topic as ever. It was recently revealed that Sanders actually received a call from both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens, well before the Cleveland Browns finally decided to draft him.
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The Browns have only won 4 regular-season games since the start of the 2024 season. Meanwhile, Baltimore and Philly have already managed to farm that many wins in the first month of this 2025 season. So why on earth would Sanders turn down their offers?
Well, it’s for that exact same reason. The Ravens and the Eagles are already winning games; they don’t need him. In the words of his NFL Hall of Fame father, Deion Sanders, “How in the world can somebody fault him for saying or thinking ‘Why in the world would I go back up Lamar for 10 more years?’”
Much like his time with the Colorado Buffaloes, Shedeur was hoping to go unchallenged for the QB1 job, regardless of which franchise that happened to be with. Simply put, the kid wanted the shot that he thought he had earned.
Even though the Browns had more quarterbacks on their roster than any other team in the league, there was still a path towards their starting job, and that was worth more to Sanders than anything else at that point in time. Much like his father, the former linebacker turned podcast host, Channing Crowder, can’t blame the 23-year-old for trying to take his shot at superstardom.
“Why would you want to go back up a Hall of Famer? Lamar Jackson is on the verge of becoming a Hall of Famer. He’s an MVP, there’s going to be multiple MVPs. He’s a young guy… [Shedeur] had no chance to ever start in Baltimore. I’ve heard the push back and all but, he can beat out Dillon Gabriel. He can beat out Joe Flacco. He’s not going to beat out Lamar Jackson. Why would you want to go there to sit behind Lamar Jackson for four years?”
Even though things haven’t quite gone according to plan for Sanders since he first landed in Cleveland, Crowder still believes that his decision was a “good idea” in terms of playing time. Considering that the Browns are off to a 0-3 start this year, it certainly seems as if the Browns will be making a change much sooner rather than later.
Suffice to say, it may not have come when he had initially hoped for it, but Sanders’ chance is about to arrive all the same, just as he expected it to.
