Browns Owner Just Made It Pretty Clear He Didn't Have Anything to do With Drafting Shedeur Sanders

Yahoo

a day ago

Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam made a surprising admission during a training camp media session Tuesday, awkwardly stating that he was not in favor of drafting rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Rather than rally around one of their many quarterbacks on the roster, a man currently battling to move up the depth chart, Haslam opted to make it clear he was washing his hands of the situation.
The question is – Why would he do that?
'If you'd have told me… Friday night driving home, 'Y'all are going to pick Shedeur,' I would have said, 'That's not happening,'' Haslam said, according to Sports Illustrated. 'But we had a conversation early [Saturday] morning, and then we had a conversation later that day.'
'I think we had the right people involved in the conversation,' he continued with the rant. 'At the end of the day, that's [General Manager] Andrew Berry's call. Andrew made the call to pick Shedeur.'
Ownership Keeps Making It Clear They Didn't Want Shedeur Sanders
This is absolutely wild stuff. It really is. And it's the kind of absurdity you've come to expect from the Browns organization.
Shedeur Sanders is going to have a tough enough time being taken seriously after his disastrous pre-draft shenanigans and the infamous Draft Day slide. The odds of him becoming a starter this season are astronomical.
Granted, a lot of those problems fall on Sheduer himself. But it's not fair for the owner of the team to come out and essentially say, 'I didn't want him, it was the other guy.'
Bro, you did invest in this guy. It might not have been the huge investment it would have otherwise been if he were a first-round pick, but you've put money and resources into him.
Why not put him in the best possible position he can be in to succeed? And who would want to go play for an organization as a free agent going forward, knowing that the team owner might throw you under the bus at any given moment?
An absolute clown show.
The Others Don't Seem Thrilled Either
Haslam's comments come on the heels of the GM, Berry, also taking a swipe at Shedeur Sanders over his recent speeding tickets, which, albeit, show a level of sustained immaturity on the quarterback's part.
'Not smart. Just not smart,' Berry told reporters this week regarding the speeding infractions. 'It's something that we've addressed with him. Look, he understands the implications, he understands the consequences.'
Those comments are fair. But is it part of a bigger pattern of a focus on negativity when it comes to Shedeur?
I mean, just look at how fired up this war room was when selecting Sanders when everyone else in the league had repeatedly passed on the prospect.
Woof. You can just feel the excitement.
Former pro quarterback Boomer Esiason reported that three NFL sources confirmed that Shedeur Sanders was removed from their boards due to ownership directives.
They didn't want him on their team. Period.
'I'm telling you right now, and I know this after talking to three different personnel people in the NFL this weekend, they didn't even have him on their board,' Esiason explained.
'They took him off, and they took him off because the owner said, 'Take him off, I don't want that guy. I don't want this … entitled person on our team,' and I don't blame them.'
Haslam could have done the same. He didn't. The Browns chose Shedeur, and now they have to support him, rather than make these bush league comments to the media.
Sanders is now part of a crowded Browns quarterback room, including veterans like Joe Flacco and Deshaun Watson, along with Dillon Gabriel, whom they picked two rounds earlier in the same draft.
Even without support from team brass, he has a chance to prove his critics wrong through performance.
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