It was a rough weekend for Shedeur Sanders. First, on Saturday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter dropped a bombshell report suggesting that the Colorado product and his camp told the Baltimore Ravens not to select him in the fifth round with the 141st overall pick. According to Schefter, they had the draft card ready but decided against the pick after hearing from Sanders, who was later selected by the Browns.
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Then, during a humbling 41-17 loss to those same Ravens on Sunday, fellow Cleveland rookie QB Dillon Gabriel was the one to get in for some garbage-time reps. He even threw his first-ever NFL touchdown (and went 3-for-3 for 19 yards overall) while Sanders watched from the sideline.
That’s not an ideal series of events for the Prime family. And as expected, there has been significant public backlash to the Sanders report.
Any chance to jump on this kid’s back will always be taken by sports media and social media alike. Cam Newton, generally a vocal supporter of the Sanders family, wasn’t making a big deal out of the situation, though. He did, however, think that Sanders made a mistake by deciding not to land in Baltimore. Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith understood exactly where Sanders was coming from.
“Cam Newton can be absolutely right that Baltimore is the better situation [for Shedeur]. Yet none of us can look at Shedeur Sanders and find extreme fault with his position,” said Stephen A. on First Take.
“Lamar Jackson, let’s not talk about him like he’s a quarterback and stop there. He’s a superstar… And he’s 28. He’s not going anywhere. Anytime soon. When you take a job as a backup QB in Baltimore. Barring injury, you assume you’re gonna be holding the clipboard… but you’re almost never going to play,” the analyst added.
Smith was arguing that while Cleveland’s QB room was much busier with three guys to compete against, Sanders could actually compete with those guys. However, there would be no competition between him and Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.
Basically, it was a choice between landing in a place where Sanders would have a chance to at least compete for regular-season reps right away, rather than accepting his certain role as a backup behind Lamar. However, as Newton pointed out, Jackson might have been in a unique position to help shepherd and guide Sanders through the pitfalls of NFL stardom.
“You would ideally wanna learn behind a guy like Lamar Jackson for this particular reason: not a lot of players can really cope with your star power… At 28 years old. Being a phenomenal athlete. The thing that I respect in a guy like Lamar Jackson the most: we’ve never heard him have any off-the-field issues. He’s been a stand-up guy. And all of our opinions have always led to his on-field performance,” Newton said.
Sanders could have definitely benefited from following Jackson’s example in Baltimore. And if you look closely, he probably would have gotten a chance to prove himself in a regular-season game if he’d landed with the Ravens. He would never supplant the two-time NFL MVP, of course, but Jackson does tend to miss time.
He hasn’t missed much playing time the last couple of years, but since 2021, backup Ravens QBs have thrown 929 passes in the regular season. Perhaps Sanders could have impressed in a spot start due to injury or in the garbage time of a dominant win like the one Baltimore had on Sunday.
Instead, Sanders now sits at QB3 behind Joe Flacco and Gabriel. While Flacco’s three picks in the first two weeks could mean his time is up soon, Gabriel would be the one to step in. Sanders would need the Oregon rookie to fail as well before he gets his shot.
Still, we would say that relying on the mediocre QB in front of him to struggle does seem a better plan than hoping for a Lamar Jackson injury.
