Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders was always going to enter the NFL with a massive spotlight simply for being the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders. The shock factor of his draft fall from being a projected first-round pick to being picked 144th overall in the 2025 NFL Draft enhanced the interest in his football journey.
Now, Sanders has lit the fuse on the scrutiny that seems to follow him after Cleveland area police cited him for speeding at 101 mph in a 60 mph zone on Tuesday. And it’s since come out that this wasn’t the only speeding citation the 2024 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year has picked up since being drafted.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol says Sanders was pulled over on June 5 for driving 91 mph in a 65 mph zone in Brunswick Hills, per WKBN-TV. The rookie quarterback failed to appear in court for the first citation on Monday prior to his second citation on Tuesday.
The Browns have discussed the issue with 23-year-old Sanders, and the high-profile fifth-round pick will do what he needs to do to put the citations in the rearview mirror, according to Cleveland.com. Sanders himself discussed the incidents on Thursday at tight end David Njoku’s celebrity softball game.
“I’ve made some wrong choices personally, I can own up to them,” Sanders said in a video posted to social media. “I made some not great choices. I learn from them. I learned.”
However, former New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum remains cynical about Sanders’ early run-ins with the law early on in his Browns career. He raised the potential for third-round rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who is two years older than Sanders, to beat out Sanders on Cleveland’s quarterback depth chart.
“When we bring him in, as the head coach or the quarterback, you are the most important employee of a $6 billion enterprise and how you handle things on and off the field matter,” Tannenbaum said on Friday’s episode of “Get Up” on ESPN. “Mark Schlereth used to say, ‘Preseason games — they don’t count but they matter and how you comport yourself off the field matters.’ To have this happen twice would be a concern.”
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It’s worth noting that Cleveland as an organization has been lenient when it comes to its players’ past legal issues. It most notably traded three first-round picks for quarterback Deshaun Watson and signed him to a five-year, fully-guaranteed $230 million contract while he was in the midst of more than 20 different lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct with multiple massage therapists. Browns 2024 second-round pick Michael Hall Jr. was allowed by the team to practice last year shortly after an arrest for a domestic dispute.
“It’s not the end of the road, but let me bring you into what typically happens at this time of the year. You set your roster and your initial sort of reps for training camp,” Tannenbaum continued about the Sanders situation. “If you’re sitting there in Cleveland and they’re saying that Dillon Gabriel is a third-round pick, he’s done well. Shedeur Sanders has done well on the field, but he’s had these two issues off the field, albeit minor, they’ll give more reps to Dillon Gabriel. Remember, every general manager has one formula on their board: production equals tolerance. He’s a fifth-round pick. He has not produced yet.”
Given Tannenbaum’s speculation, let’s take a look at how both Sanders and Gabriel performed during the Browns’ offseason program. After all, the battle to be the first rookie quarterback off the bench, should Joe Flacco or Kenny Pickett falter as the early-season starter, will most likely be decided on the field.
Dillon Gabriel
The Athletic reported Gabriel took snaps with the first-team offense against a portion of the first-team defense on each of the first two days of mandatory minicamp. He reportedly had his best two practices as a Brown to start minicamp after “erratic starts” in organized team activities.
“I really only saw Dillon today as far as getting reps against [him in] team [drills],” All-Pro Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett said at his press conference, via “Cleveland Browns Daily,” on Monday. “He looks composed. Played in front of the offense pretty well. His eyes got pretty big when I got free, I was face up on him, but all of them looked pretty calm going through their protections, going through their calls. Making the plays they need to make, not doing too much right now. They’ll have time to continue to display their talents, and it’s just one day at a time. Continue to earn the trust here of your coaches and your teammates. I think they’ll be able to open up the game.”
Shedeur Sanders
The Athletic reported that Sanders “comes in and generally gets the ball out of his hand quickly and confidently” throughout Cleveland’s offseason program. Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski praised Sanders’ work ethic, which stood out throughout the offseason program.
“He’s a very, very hard worker,” Stefanski said at his Monday press conference via “Cleveland Browns Daily” podcast. “He has fun when he’s in the building. I’m enjoying watching him progress with every single meeting, with every single rep he’s doing a great job. As a young player, I don’t care what position you’re playing, you’re going to run a play or you’re going to get something wrong. That’s so valuable because then you get to correct it and get it right the next time.”
Sanders himself isn’t sweating where he stands on the depth chart in June. Instead, he is putting a greater emphasis on learning the Browns offense at this phase of the offseason.
“My goal is to be the best teammate and to be as prepared as I can be,” Sanders said on June 10, via The Athletic. “So in every aspect I view things as I’ve got time: time to be able to grow and mature and be able to understand the ins and outs of defenses, be able to get the good insight from the vets in the [quarterback] room. I look at it as a plus. I’ve got time to actually be able to really have a great understanding of things, and whenever it is time for me to play, then it’s time for me to play. But I’m not looking too far into the future about all that. I’m looking at every day in practice. I had some misses out there today that we’ve got to go in there and correct … reads, getting in and out of drops a little bit faster from under center. So that’s the main thing. I’m focused on the small things, and over time, the big things will happen.”
It’s hard to discern much when players are running around without pads on, but performance at training camp later on this summer, when players will go full tilt for a practice setting, will truly reveal the Browns’ quarterback pecking order.
