Travis Hunter Gets Honest About Browns Rookie Quarterback

Moments before the 2025 NFL Draft began, the Cleveland Browns threw a wrench in the plans many had set for them. Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter wouldn’t be coming to Cleveland. The Browns’ dream of pairing him with his college teammate, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, was dead.

Instead, Cleveland used its first-round pick on Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham and kicked its quarterback can down the road, drafting Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel in Round 3. In Round 5, it still found a way to add Sanders to what is now the league’s most confusing quarterback room.

Sanders’ slide was the most notable in recent draft memory. It has reset the expectations for his NFL career, slid him further down the depth chart, and lessened the likelihood of starting early on.

Still, Hunter and Sanders will be tied together for the duration of their careers. The former wound up hearing his name called second by the Jacksonville Jaguars, and in a recent interview with WFIN, he got honest about the Browns quarterback.

No one saw Sanders’ slide coming, but now there’s nothing either one can do about it. All that’s left to do is work.

“We just going to work, man,” Hunter said.

“We both got our heads down, and doing what we have to do. There’s a lot of doubters out there for him, and he’s going to go to work. I’m going to go to work and just going to do what we’ve always been doing.”

In Jacksonville, Hunter faces questions about how his unique versatility will be managed. But his impact is a much safer projection than Sanders, who now has Gabriel, Joe Flacco, and Kenny Pickett to fight for playing time.

Hunter isn’t necessarily wrong to be confident in his former battery mate. Sanders has a strong argument to be the most talented passer on the roster, and his productive senior season had him billed as an early-round prospect.

Sanders led the conference in completion percentage (74.0 percent), yards (4,137), and touchdowns (37) on the way to a handful of Heisman votes.

With the confidence of the draft’s top prospect and the support of the Cleveland faithful, Sanders will hope to exceed the expectations his adversity helped dampen.