With the 2025 NFL Draft almost two weeks old, more interesting details continue to emerge on Shedeur Sanders’ stunning fall.
The biggest storyline of the 2025 NFL Draft was Shedeur Sanders’ unexpected fall into round five. He was projected to be a top-10 pick in the draft, with some scouts and analysts thinking he’d go as high as No. 3 overall to the New York Giants.
Though his fall was an all-time draft shocker, it was a mild surprise when the Cleveland Browns took him in round five at No. 144. The Browns had just used a third-round pick on Oregon product and fellow QB Dillon Gabriel, after all.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Browns had worries about the amount of “negative plays” Sanders committed at Colorado. In contrast, they liked Gabriel’s accuracy, arm, confidence and ability to largely avoid negative plays:
“In addition to excellent accuracy and decision-making, Gabriel doesn’t take many negative plays, and makes enough big-time throws to be a quality NFL starter. His arm isn’t as strong as another small quarterback who passed through these parts — Baker Mayfield — but it’s plenty strong and somewhat surprising for his frame. In fact, his game is fairly similar to that of 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, but Gabriel has a bigger arm…
He’s extremely confident, has excellent leadership ability and has started an FBS-record 63 games. He’s also tied Case Keenum for the all-time FBS record with 155 TD passes.”
In his one season at Oregon, Dillon Gabriel completed 72.9 percent of pass attempts for 3,857 yards, 30 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Gabriel only took 21 sacks, whereas Shedeur Sanders took 42 sacks, hardly an improvement from the 52 he took the year before.
Though it was easy to point the finger at Colorado’s leaky offensive line, one of the knocks against Sanders coming into the draft was his knack for holding onto the ball for too long instead of cutting his losses (throwing it away, short completions, etc).
Shedeur Sanders Joins A Crowded Browns QB Room
Sanders joins a Cleveland quarterback room that features Gabriel, offseason trade pickup Kenny Pickett and the returning Joe Flacco, who won 2023 Comeback Player of the Year honors after leading the Browns to a surprise playoff appearance.
Deshaun Watson is expected to miss significant time, and potentially all of 2025, recovering from a ruptured Achilles. Even if Watson misses the entire year, Sanders still has three other QBs ahead of him on the depth chart, so it will take off-the-charts performances in training camp and preseason for him to win the starting job.