It wasn’t too long ago that Shedeur Sanders was the most talked about person in sports following his shocking slide in the NFL Draft. But after finally being selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round, he seems to be impressing people with his early work in rookie minicamp.
Sanders will be part of a four-way battle for the Browns starting quarterback job with fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel, veteran Joe Flacco, and former first round pick Kenny Pickett.
And while it’s too early to tell where Shedeur Sanders ranks in that open competition before training camp even begins, Browns radio analyst Nathan Zegura appeared with Andrew Perloff and Maggie Gray on their Infinity Sports Network show on Friday and gave high praise to the former Colorado Buffaloes star for his looking the part of an NFL quarterback thus far.
“Shedeur’s looked good though. His ball placement is elite. His ability to layer throws is elite. I think he’s got plenty of arm strength, we’ve seen that on display certainly in camp at times,” Zegura said.
While Sanders’ on-field performance is obviously going to be under the microscope, so too will the way he carries himself off the field. It was concerns about his attitude that partly contributed to his precipitous slide in the draft – needless to say, he rubbed some people the wrong way throughout his Colorado career and pre-draft process. But so far Zegura has seen nothing but positives in his self-belief and the way he plays.
“There’s something about Shedeur, I got a chance to interview him. He is very confident but not in a cocky way, has a lot of belief in himself. I like him. I like the kid a lot. I wanted, I was very into the Browns taking him in the first round in my tape study with him. To me, if you can be that accurate, he got beaten up in college, I mean absolutely annihilated behind that line. Did he develop some bad habits? Sure. But when plays were clean, his ball placement is I think elite. And if you can be accurate with the football and know where it’s supposed to go you can be very successful in this league for a long time, especially in this style of an offense,” Zegura added.
Somewhere Mel Kiper Jr. is smiling.
Rookie minicamp is never going to be the biggest challenge in the NFL for Shedeur Sanders. But it sounds as if he is at least making a positive first impression. Hopefully for him it’s a sign of things to come as he looks to earn his way to a starting job in Cleveland, because knowing the Browns’ history with quarterbacks he needs all the good vibes he can get.