Shedeur Sanders' Surprising Browns Status Revealed

Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders will start in the team's preseason opener against the Carolina Panthers on Friday (August 8), head coach Kevin Stefanski confirmed on Wednesday via NFL Network's Cameron Wolfe.

Sanders, 23, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer cornerback Deion Sanders, his head coach at the University of Colorado and previously Jackson State University, was selected by the Browns in the fifth-round of the 2025 NFL Draft, two rounds after former Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel. Cleveland's depth chart also includes former Super Bowl champion Joe Flacco and fellow veterans Tyler 'Snoop' Huntley and Kenny Pickett.

"Browns HC Kevin Stefanski announces Shedeur Sanders will start at QB Friday vs. Panthers.," Wolfe wrote on his X account from the Browns' practice. "He’s expected to play a lot. Tyler “Snoop” Huntley will be other QB available to play. No Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel or Kenny Pickett. Browns are doing joint practices with Panthers today."

Sanders was projected by many to be a potential first-round pick before falling to No. 144 overall in the fifth-round of the 2025 NFL Draft in April. CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones claimed he may have "sandbagged" interviews with teams he was less interested in prior to the draft.

“At some of those [combine] meetings with certain teams that maybe Shedeur Sanders didn’t really want to go to … I was told that he more or less sandbagged in those interviews,” Jones said.

“I don’t know if he didn’t take them seriously, what it was, but he did not give it his all in some of those interviews,” he added. “Rubbed some teams the wrong way.”

Sanders' father had previously implied that he had specific teams in mind for Shedeur and his other son, Shilo, who also played for the Buffaloes and eventually signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent. The Pro Football Hall of Famer teased that he and Shedeur would take similar action to former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and his father, former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, when they expressed their desire for Eli to not play for the then-San Diego Chargers prior to the 2004 NFL Draft.

“I know where I want them to go,” Deion said. “There’s certain cities where it ain’t going to happen … It’s going to be an Eli. We ain’t doing that.”