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4 hours ago
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The Cleveland Browns shocked everyone when they selected Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft after they had already taken Oregon quarterback Dillon Garbiel in round three. It felt very sudden and like a waste of a third-round pick on the part of Gabriel on the Browns' end, which led to an interesting theory from Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report.
"It'll be hard to convince me that Cleveland's decision to stop Shedeur Sanders' slide didn't come from ownership," Knox writes. "Before then, it felt like the Browns were content to stockpile draft capital, take a flier on Dillon Gabriel, add some contributors and position themselves to make a run at a quarterback in 2026. I think trading away the rights to Travis Hunter was a sign that the front office didn't plan to be a playoff contender this season. I'm not so sure that adding Sanders to the mix changes that—though a training camp rise by Sanders or another run of Flacco Fever could change the outlook quickly. Cleveland was in the postseason two years ago, after all. It just feels like it’s going to take more than a single offseason to erase the stink of 2024 and the disaster that was the Deshaun Watson experiment."
After the Deshaun Watson failure did Jimmy Haslam take precedent and go lone ranger to make the pick for Shedeur Sanders? That sure would explain why Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry looked like they were waiting at the DMV when the pick was announced. It's certainly not outlandish to think Haslam would try to right the wrong of the Watson trade by hoping Sanders would turn out to be the ultimate steal.
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