Browns' Sanders Earns Support From Elite Receiver
The fun started early, when the Browns shocked the world and traded out of the second pick (and the rights to draft Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter). Instead, they dropped to No. 5, picked up an incredible haul in the process, and then played spectator as Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders fell.
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Cleveland didn't trade back into Round 1 for a quarterback. It didn't take Sanders in Round 2, either. In Round 3, the Browns took a different quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, a notably lesser prospect. It wasn't until the fifth round that the Browns took Sanders and ended the most famous slide in recent memory.
Sanders was met with droves of criticism as fans looked to explain the various reasons why he went from a prospective franchise quarterback to Cleveland's fourth-string passer.
Not everybody has soured on Sanders. New York Giants star receiver Malik Nabers backed the Browns quarterback on a recent podcast episode.
'You don't do something like that to somebody like that," Nabers said on '7pm in Brooklyn With Carmelo Anthony.' 'You can't knock his talent. I heard a lot of things about he takes unnecessary sacks. He had a bad o-line. He threw 70 percent (completion) with a bad o-line. Talk about his escaping the pocket. You can pull up plenty of clips of him escaping 3-4 tackles and throwing it down the field. Most of his receivers had 7-8 touchdowns. He played with Travis Hunter, he won the Biletnikoff [Award.] Some things you just can't knock.'
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Sanders ended up in Cleveland after all, but being the second quarterback taken by the team that drafted him doesn't inspire confidence. Instead, it suggests that his leash is short, and that he'll have to earn everything, rather than having a path paved by his draft capital.
To some, that looks like hedging a bet on Sanders' character. His personality came into question throughout the process. Sanders is awfully confident, perhaps cocky at times. He's thrown teammates under the bus and may have fumbled the pre-draft process.
But he also helped turn Colorado football around, seems to have the support of his Cleveland teammates, and has enough talent to win the starting job.
Nabers, too, stood by Sanders.
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"We gotta stop making feelings with how people play linger," he said. "Yeah he might have some things that he might say on camera off the field, that don't have to do with how he plays football. ... Everybody got different personalities. You never gonna meet somebody that's got the same personality anywhere. We all made differently. For them to judge on just the things that he says or how he carries himself.
'How he carries himself is all about how his dad raised him. We all know Deion. They was just doing that to show how they bigger than what he wanted to stand for."
Sanders, very publicly, has been humbled. How he reacts to it may define who gets to tell his story. Cleveland's quarterback room should grant him that opportunity.
Related: Travis Kelce Sends Strong Message on Browns Drafting Shedeur Sanders
Related: Eagles Legend Jason Kelce Offers Brutal Shedeur Sanders Opinion
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