On Wednesday evening, the NFL officially released the full 2025 schedule, and unsurprisingly, the Cleveland Browns don’t have any primetime games. The Browns will play a stand-alone, Nationally televised game in Week 5 when they host the Minnesota Vikings in London, but as far as marquee night games, Cleveland is one of three teams without one, joining the Tennessee Titans and New Orleans Saints.
It’s not shocking the Browns don’t have a primetime game; the team finished last season 3-14, and they aren’t expected to be much better in 2025. However, the league’s decision not to give the team at least one spotlight night game does make a statement about how the NFL feels about Cleveland’s quarterback competition: the league isn’t sure Shedeur Sanders is going to start.
In the NFL’s defense, no one knows what’s going to happen with the Browns’ chaotic quarterback room. However, if the league even had an inkling that Sanders would start games this season, Cleveland would’ve at least got a Thursday Night Football game. That’s obvious because Sanders is a ratings machine, evidenced by the daily talk show topics that’s he’s at the center of, and all of the attention that has followed the Browns since they selected him in the fifth round of the draft.
Make no doubt about it, though, if Sanders ends up in the starting lineup, and Cleveland looks competitive, the NFL will find a way to flex the Browns into a primetime game. So while Sanders and fans are hoping the young quarterback can save the team on the field, he’ll also be able to save the franchise off of it.
NFL schedule release shows how the Browns can benefit from Shedeur Sanders emerging as the starter
For better or worse, Sanders is a needle mover. While winning is paramount in sports, the brand and entertainment aspect is important as well— regardless of what anyone says. Cleveland absolutely needs to identify the best quarterback on the field, and start them, but if that quarterback happens to be Shedeur Sanders, the benefit will extend far beyond wins.
The Browns will be catapulted back into the zeitgeist of the NFL, and not just as a laughingstock. The league will want to closely follow the career of Sanders, and if he can deliver like he has for programs in the past, the league won’t treat Cleveland like it’s irrelevant anymore.