Insider Clears the Air on Browns, Shedeur Sanders Conspiracy Theory

The Cleveland Browns surprised a whole lot of people when they traded up to select Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of the NFL Draft.

That the Browns selected Sanders in a vacuum is not what turned heads. It was the fact that Cleveland took the Colorado Buffaloes star after having already drafted a quarterback in Oregon's Dillon Gabriel back in the third round.

This had some believing that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam may have forced general manager Andrew Berry to nab Sanders, and those who were reading the body language of Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski in the wake of the Browns making the pick felt it was a slam dunk case.

However, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com has set the record straight regarding Cleveland's decision to draft Sanders, and it wasn't because Haslam commissioned the move.

“Haslam wouldn’t force Berry to make a decision like that. Berry has final say over roster decisions, and Haslam lets him do his job," Cabot wrote. "Berry collaborates with others, including Stefanski, on such decisions, but he is driving the roster bus and Haslam doesn’t meddle. Back in 2014, when the inexperienced Ray Farmer was GM, Haslam influenced the pick of Johnny Manziel. But Berry is an experienced GM, and Haslam isn’t mandating moves."

Realistically speaking, what almost surely occurred was that the Browns saw Sanders freefalling and figured he would be a terrific value pick on Day 3, which was why they were apparently aggressively making calls to try and move up in the order to bag him.

Sanders will have a chance to compete for Cleveland's starting quarterback job in the coming months.