General manager Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns have already been lauded for the early returns of their 2025 draft class.
If Shedeur Sanders actually pans out as a franchise-altering player — this class could one day reach atmospheric heights.
There’s no bigger story in Cleveland right now than Sanders, the megastar son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders who the Browns snagged with the 144th overall pick in last April's draft. That the Browns didn’t need another quarterback at the time — they already had Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Deshaun Watson (on injured reserve) and third-round rookie Dillon Gabriel on the roster — but their move to trade up in the fifth round for Sanders now feels like a risk the rest of the NFL world wish they had taken.
Sanders remains a work in progress, which should be expected as a player who spent training camp as the fourth QB on the depth chart, and the QB3 to open the regular season. His big breakout game came in a loss to the one-win Tennessee Titans last week — on the Browns home field.
But it’s also impossible to ignore Sanders’ growing feel for the NFL game. Through three starts, he’s flashed an uncanny ability to buy inordinate amounts of time behind a patchwork offensive line, and hit big plays down the field; he enters Week 15 with a long pass completion of at least 34 yards in each of his starts, and that’s not lost on Ben Johnson, whose Chicago Bears are set to host Sanders and the Browns Sunday in a gotta-have-it game at Soldier Field.
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson said the quiet part out loud about what the Browns have in Shedeur Sanders
Last week, Tennessee Titans interim head coach Mike McCoy lauded Sanders’ prowess at extending plays and crushing opposing defenses down the field — and he wound up foreshadowing a 364-yard, three-touchdown performance from the rookie.
Sanders certainly has the attention of Johnson, the star first-year head coach of the Bears whose defense leads the NFL in takeaways, but ranks 12th-worst in the league at defending the pass.
“I think he’s doing a great job as a rookie,” Johnson said. “He was able to sit in, and soak in, that offense over the course of the spring and summer, and early in the season. You can tell that that’s probably benefitted him to a degree, because now he’s able to go out there and let it loose. He does a great job of extending the play and creating on his own as well.
The last three weeks you kind of feel a spark there on offense with Shedeur out there.”
Browns fans would certainly agree with that assessment. With another season circling the drain at 3-10, and some looming leadership decisions coming in 2026, Sanders’ mission to prove he’s the right man moving forward should keep fans on the edge of their seats (that, and Myles Garrett’s chase for NFL immortality, of course).
Johnson certainly knows what NFL talent looks like. His comments on Sanders carry significant weight as the Browns look to keep their current spark flickering through these final four games of 2025.