Shedeur Sanders came into the NFL with real buzz behind him. After standout college runs at Jackson State and Colorado, he landed with the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, a team that badly needed answers at quarterback.
His rookie year gave them some reasons to believe, but also plenty to sort out. In eight games, Sanders threw for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions, completing 56.6% of his passes.
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That completion rate was a steep drop from the 74% he posted in his final season at Colorado. The Browns finished the year with questions still hanging over the position, and those questions have not gone away this offseason.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders has spent all season watching from the sidelinesPeter Casey-Imagn Images
(Peter Casey-Imagn Images)
Browns general manager Andrew Berry spoke to ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi about where things stand with Shedeur Sanders’ progress towards being a lock at QB1, heading into the spring.
“I think that’s a little bit TBD, because I think all of our guys coming in, they’re going to learn a new offensive system,” Berry said. “We’re going to have a fair amount of turnover on that side of the ball, they’ll have new teammates to learn, which is why the spring will be really important for the guys that are at the offseason program for us to really, really get a sense of their progress year over year.
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“He’s been working really hard. I would expect him to take a step forward, and we’ll deal with that kind of week-by-week and month-by-month.”
A year ago, Sanders was widely viewed as a franchise-level prospect. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. had him rated as the top quarterback in the draft class and one of the better overall prospects on his board.
The rookie year did not live up to that hype entirely, but the situation in Cleveland was not exactly easy to walk into either. Sanders still made enough plays to keep the Browns from moving on.
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Cleveland hasn’t added a quarterback this offseason, leaving a room of Sanders, Dillon Gabriel and Deshaun Watson. The internal competition has largely been framed around Watson and Sanders, but Berry made clear that Watson’s contract year won’t be the deciding factor in who starts.
The offensive line in front of them also looks different this time around. The Browns added Zion Johnson and Elgton Jenkins and pulled off a trade for tackle Tytus Howard. Sanders has a better setup than he did as a rookie.
Now it comes down to what he does with it.
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Mar 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.