If you can believe it, a major news story in 2025 almost immediately got run over by a bunch of conspiracy theories.
Midway through Day 3 of the NFL Draft, it finally happened: the Browns drafted Shedeur Sanders. It took about 100 picks more than anyone ever expected, but Cleveland finally got around to it. Now Sanders gets to head into his rookie year competing for, presumably, the QB2 job – and it's not like there's any reason why he can't compete for the starting gig before next season ends. (If you can't eventually beat out Dillion Gabriel and Joe Flacco, maybe you really are a 5th rounder?)
RELATED: Resurfaced Deion Sanders tweet instantly makes Browns' Shedeur pick awkward
Shortly after the pick was announced, a video of the Browns' front office reaction – or really, lack thereof – surface on the internet. The optics are, admittedly, not great. But who does bad optics better than the Browns?! And in their defense, Sanders is a big name, but that is kinda how most teams react to picking a QB in the 5th round. It's Day 3 – everyone's tired and just wants to go home.
But obviously the internet did what the internet always does, and it took approximately 17 seconds for people to start assuming that the lack of excitement had to do with meddling ownership. It got so prevalent that Browns GM Andrew Berry actually felt compelled to publicly talk about it. In a way, it's a very fitting beginning to the Sanders era.
Andrew Berry put a quick end to all those Shedeur Sanders conspiracy theories
#Browns Andrew Berry: "Jimmy lets us do our jobs."
— Brad Stainbrook (@StainbrookNFL) April 26, 2025
On one hand, that's great to hear. We love an owner who lets his GM pick their own QB, which has deifnitely always been the case in Cleveland.
On the other, what exactly is Berry supposed to say? Yeah, the owner called me and pulled rank. That's the biz, isn't how you keep your job. I do think that if there was any sort of edict to draft Sanders that it probably would have come sometime before the 5th round, but who knows. The good news is that the Browns owner lets the Browns GM do his job, which is apparently draft every QB in this year's draft class.
At least training camp won't be boring.