Shedeur Sanders
Shedeur Sanders is the Colorado quarterback whose 2025 draft slide to the Browns at No. 144 preceded a rookie Pro Bowl nod and a 2026 backup role in Cleveland.
Shedeur Sanders is a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns and one of the most scrutinized prospects of his draft class — a record-setting college passer at Jackson State and Colorado, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer and his own head coach Deion Sanders, and the central figure in the 2025 NFL Draft’s most-discussed slide, when a player mocked near the top of the board lasted until the fifth round. His career is best read as two stories running side by side: the production, which was enormous, and the evaluation, which the league treated with unusual suspicion.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 7, 2002, Tyler, Texas |
| Position | Quarterback |
| Teams | Jackson State (2021–2022), Colorado (2023–2024), Cleveland Browns (2025–) |
| Draft | 2025, Round 5, No. 144 overall (Cleveland Browns) |
| Contract | 4-year, $4.6M rookie deal, signed May 19, 2025 (through 2028) |
| Number | 2 |
Jackson State (2021–2022)
The HBCU arrival. Sanders enrolled at Jackson State in 2021 as the highest-rated signee in program history, following his father, Deion Sanders, who had taken over the Jackson State program. As a freshman he threw for 3,231 yards with 30 touchdowns against eight interceptions, and became the first player from a historically Black college or university to win the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in Division I FCS. He was also named SWAC Freshman of the Year.
The undefeated sophomore. In 2022 Sanders completed 344 of 488 passes for 3,752 yards with 40 touchdowns and six interceptions, leading the Tigers to a 12–1 record, a SWAC championship and a second straight Celebration Bowl berth. He was named first-team All-SWAC and SWAC Offensive Player of the Year. Across two Jackson State seasons he passed for 6,983 yards and 70 touchdowns while the program went 23–3, per the college record of his career.
Colorado (2023–2024)
The rebuild. When Deion Sanders was hired at Colorado for 2023, Shedeur transferred with him to a program coming off a one-win season. He immediately steadied the offense, completing 298 of 430 passes (69.3%) for 3,230 yards with 27 touchdowns and three interceptions across 11 games, according to Sports-Reference.
The peak. His 2024 season was the best of his college career. Over 13 games he completed 353 of 477 attempts for 4,134 yards with 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, and his 74.0% completion rate led all of FBS. He won the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year award and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, earned second-team All-America recognition, and set Colorado single-season records for passing yards and completion percentage. His two Colorado seasons produced 7,364 passing yards and 64 touchdowns, giving him a four-year college total of 14,347 yards and 134 touchdown passes.
The 2025 draft slide
The projection. Through most of the pre-draft cycle Sanders was regarded as one of the top two quarterbacks in the class alongside Miami’s Cam Ward, and appeared in mock drafts as a potential top-five or first-round selection. What followed was, by the accounts of the moment, one of the most surprising falls at the position in recent memory.
The fall. Ward went No. 1 overall to Tennessee. Jaxson Dart (New York Giants), Tyler Shough (New Orleans), Jalen Milroe (Seattle) and Dillon Gabriel — whom the Browns themselves took at No. 94 — all came off the board before Cleveland circled back. Sanders became the sixth quarterback selected, at No. 144 overall in the fifth round, after the Browns traded picks No. 166 and No. 192 to Seattle to move up for him. General manager Andrew Berry said the team had not expected him to be available that late.
The reporting. Contemporaneous coverage from ESPN and NBC News attributed the fall to a combination of on-field questions — evaluators cited his tendency to hold the ball and absorb sacks, and graded his arm strength and physical upside as average — and to interviews that some teams described unfavorably. Much of that criticism reached the public through anonymous coaches and executives. This entry describes those accounts as they were reported and does not adjudicate them. Sanders signed a four-year rookie contract worth $4.6 million on May 19, 2025 — a fraction of the guarantees attached to the class’s first-round quarterbacks.
Cleveland Browns (2025–)
The wait. Sanders opened his rookie year behind Cleveland’s veterans and did not appear until a Week 11 relief outing against Baltimore. He made his first start the following week against Las Vegas, a 24–10 win, and started the rest of the way, finishing 3–4 as a starter across eight total games.
The flashes and the struggles. The rookie line was uneven. Sanders completed 120 of 212 passes (56.6%) for 1,400 yards with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions and a 68.1 passer rating — which, per season-ending accounts, ranked last among qualifying passers with at least 200 attempts — while adding 169 rushing yards and a touchdown. The best of it came in Week 14, when he threw for 364 yards and three touchdowns against Tennessee.
The Pro Bowl. On January 26, 2026, Sanders was added to the AFC Pro Bowl Games roster as a replacement for New England’s Drake Maye, whose Patriots had advanced to Super Bowl LX. Reporting noted he was the first Browns quarterback named to a Pro Bowl since Derek Anderson.
The 2026 depth chart. Entering the 2026 season under first-year head coach Todd Monken, Sanders competed with veteran Deshaun Watson for the starting job. Cleveland gave Watson the Week 1 start, listing Sanders second on the depth chart. As of September 29, 2026, Sanders was Cleveland’s backup quarterback.
By the numbers
Passing by season — college via Sports-Reference, NFL via Pro-Football-Reference:
| Season | Team | GP | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | Yds | TD | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Jackson St. | — | — | — | — | 3,231 | 30 | 8 |
| 2022 | Jackson St. | 13 | 344 | 488 | 70.5 | 3,752 | 40 | 6 |
| 2023 | Colorado | 11 | 298 | 430 | 69.3 | 3,230 | 27 | 3 |
| 2024 | Colorado | 13 | 353 | 477 | 74.0 | 4,134 | 37 | 10 |
| 2025 | Cleveland (NFL) | 8 | 120 | 212 | 56.6 | 1,400 | 7 | 10 |
Career totals
Ranks
- 1st FBS completion percentage, 2024 season (74.0%)
- 1st Colorado single-season passing yards (4,134, 2024)
- 1st Colorado single-season completion percentage (74.0%, 2024)
Honors
- 2024 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year
- 2024 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
- 2024 second-team All-American
- 2026 Pro Bowl (AFC, replacement)
- 2021 Jerry Rice Award (top FCS freshman)
- 2021 SWAC Freshman of the Year
- 2022 SWAC champion, First-team All-SWAC / SWAC Offensive Player of the Year
- 2024 FBS completion percentage leader
Per Sports-Reference, Pro-Football-Reference and NCAA.com, through Sep. 29, 2026.
The arguments
Why did he slide? The central debate of Sanders’s career is his draft fall. On one side, the reported evaluation: coaches and executives cited to ESPN and NBC News flagged his pocket habits, his sack rate and interview impressions, arguing the tape and the meetings justified a Day 3 grade. On the other side, observers who pointed to the production — an FBS-leading completion rate, back-to-back 3,000-plus-yard seasons and a low interception count — and argued the fall outran the evidence. Both readings are matters of reported opinion, and the anonymity of much of the criticism is itself part of the dispute.
Watson or Sanders? Cleveland’s 2026 quarterback question pits the security of Deshaun Watson’s veteran contract against Sanders’s late-2025 momentum. One camp holds that the Browns’ investment and Watson’s experience warranted the Week 1 nod; another points to Sanders’s Pro Bowl recognition and his 364-yard game as evidence the job should have been his. Berry publicly declined to commit to Sanders as the 2026 starter.
Does the Pro Bowl mean anything? Sanders’s Pro Bowl selection drew its own argument. Supporters framed it as a genuine milestone — the first Browns quarterback so honored since Derek Anderson, and a rare rookie nod for a fifth-round pick. Skeptics noted it came as an injury-and-Super-Bowl replacement and sat awkwardly beside a passer rating that ranked last among qualifiers. Both facts are true; the entry leaves the weighting to the reader.
Why it matters
Shedeur Sanders matters because his career forced a public argument about how the NFL evaluates quarterbacks. He arrived with the résumé of a first-round pick — HBCU records, an FBS completion title, major national awards — and left the draft as a fifth-round afterthought, then answered with a starting stretch that produced both the league’s worst qualifying passer rating and a Pro Bowl invitation in the same rookie year. Whether he becomes a long-term starter or a cautionary tale about draft-room consensus, the gap between what he did and where he was picked is the reason his name will keep coming up in every conversation about scouting, spotlight and the sons of famous fathers.