Rich Eisen just confirmed what Browns fans have been hoping about Shedeur Sanders

It’s still a small sample size, but the narratives that chased Shedeur Sanders into the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, and ultimately to the Cleveland Browns, are looking more ridiculous by the week.

It only took three games for Sanders to dispel all the pre-draft concerns over his abilities, both on the field and in the locker room, to be a potential long-term option at quarterback. The Browns are 1-2 in his three starts, and no fan should be celebrating a narrow loss to the one-win Titans, but Sanders has shown marked improvement each step of the way, with Sunday’s fourth quarter the obvious breakout moment.

While Sanders has undoubtedly flashed first-round NFL talent, he’s still clearly a developmental prospect at this point. His propensity to hold onto the football and drift backwards, instead of climbing the pocket and delivering the ball on time, continues to be a work in progress.

The good from the Titans game was Sanders’ playmaking ability and poise during the Browns’ back-to-back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter that nearly erased a 31-17 deficit. The bad was his 54.8 completion percentage on 42 pass attempts, and time-to-throw average of 3.57 seconds; that, per Next Gen Stats, led to Sanders getting pressured on 63 percent of his dropbacks — the highest pressure rate any QB has faced this season.

Again, the talent is undeniable, and Sanders should only continue to develop and improve as he closes Cleveland’s final four games in the QB1 role. 

As for the rumored concerns over Shedeur’s celebrity family dynamic and professionalism?  They’re looking like a myth as Sanders and the Browns prepare for his fourth start on Sunday.

Rich Eisen’s take on Shedeur Sanders should silence every pre-draft narrative

When you’re a lightning rod, 23-year-old megastar like Shedeur Sanders, character flaws have a way of revealing themselves naturally. That he’s had zero red flags so far amid a few tension-filled weeks between fans, head coach Kevin Stefanski, and the local media kind of says it all.

After the 49ers game in Week 13, Sanders patiently listened to a reporter’s question on a Stefanski fourth-down decision, only to call out the framing of the question as “rude."

He handled himself just as well after Sunday’s brutal loss to the Titans, when a reporter asked him how it felt to be subbed out of the game for the team’s attempt at a potential game-tying two-point conversion attempt in the final minute.

“If I’m out there on any play, I wish I would always have the ball in my hands,” Sanders said, “but that’s not what football is. Sometimes you gotta run the ball. Sometimes you gotta kick a field goal. That’s the game. The most important thing is the ball. So, in any situation, of course you would want to, but I know we practiced something and we executed it in practice, and we just didn’t seem to on this day.”

Sanders could have reacted to that question in a variety of ways, and any number of them would've allowed the media to run with something negative. Dismissing it, for example, could come off like a subtle indictment of his head coach.

He handled it like the professional many said he wasn’t coming out of college, and that wasn’t lost on longtime sports personality Rich Eisen this week.

“Each time he’s knocked it out of the park, whether he’s turning to somebody and saying, ‘You’re just trying to start trouble, huh?’ Or ‘Hey, everybody wants the ball, but we practiced it.’ … He could have easily been (like), ‘Why did you take me out?’ And it would just be, ‘He’s making it about himself. Oh, his dad’s making videos of him coming to the game and hugging his son up before the game. It’s only about the Sanders.’ Every single time he has nailed it, when put in a position by either the media or the Football Gods to second-guess his coach, or the setup around him, or whether they want him or not.”

Has Sanders a pro? Absolutely. Has he been clearly working on his craft, enough to earn himself the right to finish the season as the Browns' starter? Most definitely.

Does he have more work to do on the field? Without a doubt. But the signs of a potential franchise quarterback are there with Shedeur, and it’s something all 32 teams (including the Browns) got wrong back in April.