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Colorado Buffaloes football legend Shedeur Sanders is not the Cleveland Browns’ likely starter under center this fall, at least as things stand right now. Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot reported Kenny Pickett as the current frontrunner heading into training camp.
“It's a tough call before we've even seen the first practice of organized team activities, but I know Kenny Pickett heads in as the frontrunner to win the starting job at the outset,” Cabot wrote Sunday. “He'll take the initial first-team reps in OTAs and probably the mandatory minicamp, and it seems like it's his job to try to keep for now.”
Pickett cost Cleveland’s front office a fifth-round pick in the Dorian Thompson-Robinson swap with the Philadelphia Eagles. He figured to be a frontrunner for the job, but that he’s solely No. 1 may not speak well to Joe Flacco’s health. The 40-year-old has upper-body injuries that may derail his second Browns stint before it starts.
Regarding Sanders, his chances of starting won’t improve until the preseason.
As Lance Reisland and Dan Labbe of the “Orange and Brown Talk podcast” noted, Sanders didn’t prove much yet at Browns rookie minicamp against Dillon Gabriel without pads in non-live-game action.
“When pads go on, as I mentioned in one of my posts, when pads go on, that’s when they really separate themselves. Because when live things are flying out around them and they got to take a big hit and then come back and make a big read and do all those kind of things that NFL quarterback’s got to do, the cream will rise to the top there, without question,” Reisland said.
“My concerns with Shedeur are things that are not going to show up in 7-on-7 and even in team drills against a bunch of tryout guys and rookies ... my concerns with Shedeur probably aren’t going to be answered until we get to see him play real football,” Labbe said.
As much as it may seem Sanders made moves toward becoming a household name in 2025, he’ll time will have to wait.
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