Two weeks after Shedeur Sanders’ much-discussed NFL Draft wait, Sanders finally stepped on field as a Cleveland Brown at the team’s rookie minicamp. After the first session Friday, he was the last player off the field.
“My job here isn’t to prove people wrong,” Sanders said in his first media availability Saturday. “It’s to prove myself right.”
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When he got the call from Browns general manager Andrew Berry on the final day of the NFL Draft, Sanders celebrated by jumping in a swimming pool. This weekend, Sanders is in the deep end of the Browns’ playbook as he begins his professional career.
Sanders said he’s not focused on the past or even the competition for a job and the potential role that awaits him this summer. He’s busy learning, getting further acquainted with his surroundings and trying to show the folks in charge that the Browns finally making that call was the right one.
“I don’t even try to think about that day (of the draft),” Sanders said. “I’ve got practice today.”
Sanders universally had first and second-round grades from NFL Draft experts, but he wasn’t selected until the draft’s final day. The Browns traded up 22 spots in the fifth round to select Sanders at No. 144, making Sanders the Browns’ seventh and final selection — and the second quarterback the team took.
In rookie minicamp, third-round pick Dillon Gabriel was first up Friday when the Browns held competitive drills during practice. Sanders threw second in both 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 work as the rookie passers went through installation and the beginning stages of what has been advertised as a four-man quarterback competition this summer with Gabriel and Sanders starting behind veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett.
By name and by his 2.2 million Instagram followers, Sanders is the most famous of the four. His father, Deion, was his college coach and is a Pro Football Hall of Famer. President Donald Trump posted on social media about his draft wait, and Tom Brady sent him a post-draft text message encouraging Sanders to focus on the future, not on his extended draft wait.
“My story’s going to be similar,” Sanders said of his interaction with Brady, a sixth-round pick in 1999. “I was a late-round draft pick, but we’re here now, so none of that stuff matters. That just mattered on that day, and I’m just excited to be here and ready to work.”
Though Browns rookies weren’t permitted at the team facility until Thursday, Sanders traveled to Northeast Ohio a few days after the draft. He’s been working out at a local sports training facility and visited an inner-city Cleveland high school to speak to the students, something Sanders he’s done “everywhere” he’s previously been because he enjoys connecting with youth, not because he was looking for any spotlight or post-draft redemption.
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“You value life and you value opportunity just waking up every day,” Sanders said. “So that’s kind of why (the draft fall) is nothing for me, really. No matter what in any situation, I can’t really be phased by it.
“It’s like playing quarterback. You go down there, you may have not scored the whole game or whatever, but then when it gets to that final two minutes and it’s time to lock in extra, you can’t be in your feelings. You can’t be down about anything. You still got another chance.”
The competition for the starting job and other roles in the Browns’ wide-open quarterback room won’t really start until later this spring, though Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Friday that the team added competitive periods to the rookie minicamp script because it wants all four quarterbacks to get as many reps as possible.
The Browns drafted Gabriel in the third round at No. 94, and no other quarterbacks were selected in the 50 picks between Gabriel and Sanders. Now that there are four quarterbacks at least somewhat in the mix of what both Berry and Stefanski have said will be an open competition, the race for real reps and added opportunities will be a lot like Sanders’ draft wait: both interesting and closely scrutinized.
“It’s day by day,” Sanders said. “I just find something (in practice) I want to perfect and just perfect it to the best of my abilities. That’s all I really focus on — just being there, just being a leader, being a great teammate, doing what I need to do whenever it is. So I’m just thankful for an opportunity. Things could have been a lot worse, but I’m here smiling in front of you all at this facility right now.”
On Friday, Sanders and Jabre Barber, a tryout wide receiver from Texas A&M, were the last of minicamp’s 47 participants to leave the practice field, getting in extra throws for almost 30 minutes.
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After rookie minicamp wraps with Saturday and Sunday practice sessions, the Browns’ rookies will join the team’s veterans in the formal offseason workout program on Monday. The team’s organized team activity practices begin in the last week of May, and we’ll see then if Sanders is able to earn more reps than a fourth-string rookie typically would garner.
(Photo: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
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