Cleveland Browns did what no other team would for QB Shedeur Sanders if what one NFL great heard is right

The Cleveland Browns did what no other NFL team was willing to do through four full rounds of April’s draft — they selected Shedeur Sanders.

If Sanders was going to land in Cleveland, the expectation was that it would be in the first or second round. Instead, the Browns grabbed him in the fifth round, after already drafting Dillon Gabriel in the third.

According to one NFL legend, Cleveland went against league-wide advice when it came to Sanders.

“I tell you this much, what I heard from someone that’s in the NFL, that the NFL told [teams] don’t draft him, do not draft him,” Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson said. “We are going to make an example out of him. And this came from a very good source, a very good source.”

Sanders is set to play in the Browns’ third preseason game against the Rams, marking his second appearance after missing last week’s win over the Eagles with an oblique injury. In his debut against the Carolina Panthers, Sanders completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. It was the most exciting moment of his young career so far and one that left fans wanting more.

Cleveland isn’t tied to Sanders as a fifth-round pick and doesn’t have to keep him beyond this season. With two first-round selections in next year’s draft, either Sanders or Gabriel would have to make a major impression to convince the Browns not to pursue another quarterback early.

There’s no denying that several factors — some of his own doing, some not — hurt Sanders’ draft stock. Still, he now has the opportunity to make all of that irrelevant. One way or another, he’s likely to see the field for the Browns this season.