Shedeur Sanders Finds New Perspective From Unexpected Browns' Teammate

Being a backup is mostly uncharted territory for Sanders. Over the last four years, he started 50 games across his consecutive two-year stints at Jackson State (26 games) and Colorado (24 games). You have to go back to 2020, during the COVID altered college football season to find the last time Sanders served in a backup role.

The pandemic forced Jackson State to play a spring season instead of a traditional fall one, and Sanders graduated early from high school in January of 2021 to join the Tigers. The situation left him ineligible to play in actual games, and so he spent that spring watching, learning, and giving the first team defense meaningful looks at practice.

"I haven't really not started since COVID year and I ran scout team there and then sometimes you got to find the joy and the fun in it because it is fun," Sanders said, admitting that he had forgotten what the role was like. "You going out there against the first defense and you out there with a chip, you playing with guys, you playing with receivers that trying to get out there also. So I feel like all that stuff is fun and you just got to make the best of any situation you in."

Sanders admitted that he's tried to tap into that experience as he's navigated his first NFL offseason program, training camp and, now, preseason as the fourth quarterback on the depth chart.

"That's my reflection. That's how I'm able to get through any situation," he said. "Anything that life throws at me or whatever I'm going through is because I feel like I've done it in a similar form. And then I think about, and I like when there's positive things going on, I don't like to be negative too much of everything. I know everybody works hard. A lot of people work hard. Life is hard, everything, so who am I to complain?"

Still, in college, it didn't take long for Sanders to eventually take over the starting job at Jackson State. He was named QB1 for the subsequent 2021 fall season. He parlayed his two years there into two more years as a starter at Colorado, following his Hall of Fame father Deion Sanders there in 2023. He went on to set numerous records for the Buffaloes in his two seasons.

The NFL is a different beast, though. Rookies come in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but there's a lot of adjusting that takes place. Suddenly, you're playing against the best-of-the-best, at a faster speed. The playbooks are more complex and nuanced. There's a lot to learn.

Four months into his NFL journey, Sanders – with some help from Huntley's – understands this is a marathon, not a sprint.

"I would say I learned life in a different perspective. That's why I come here. I'm happy, I always got good energy because I'm blessed to come out here every day," he said.

That mindset has been a constant from Sanders since joining the team as a fifth-round pick in the NFL Draft. He's kept his head down, focused purely on football and believes eventually his hard work will pay off in another starting opportunity. It may just take a little longer than he's used to.

"Regardless of situation, regardless of anything, I know my time, whenever that is, I'll be ready for it and I'm going to embrace that," Sanders said. "But in due time I got many things I need to fix, many things I need to work on, and I'm not oblivious to that. So all I look at as I'm getting more time to cook, I'm getting more time to warm up."

Sanders will have one final chance to see if he can improve his status on the Browns QB depth chart on Saturday in the team's preseason finale against the Rams. It's essentially a final dress rehearsal for the starters, including veteran QB Joe Flacco. But Sanders is expected to play, as is fellow rookie QB Dillon Gabriel, who Sanders is currently chasing.

In his preseason debut against the Panthers two weeks back, Sanders made quite the statement, completing 14-of-23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. He orchestrated three touchdown drives in total over the 45 snaps he played.

It was impressive, and left fans lauding over the idea that maybe, just maybe, Sanders is the long-lost franchise QB the Browns haven't been able to identify. Sanders certainly hopes to get there, but he's not thinking that far ahead. He's not even thinking much about what he needs to do in an encore performance Saturday.

"It's honestly just going out there playing ball. I don't really think too deep of it," he said. "I think about one completion at the time, one right play call at the time, the right way to do the footwork when we're handing the ball off doing everything. So every day is just constant grading yourself and trying to have progress."