Las Vegas, November 23, 2025. His first NFL start. Shedeur Sanders threw for 209 yards and a touchdown, the Browns beat the Raiders 24-10, and afterward he stood in front of reporters and said this.
"A lot of people want to see me fail, and it ain't going to happen."
Shedeur Sanders, to reporters after his first NFL start, a 24-10 win at Las Vegas, November 23, 2025
Eleven months later, he is 24, in his second season with the Cleveland Browns, and he is the backup quarterback. Through six games he has thrown one pass. And on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, he walked into Kirk Middle School and Caledonia Elementary School in East Cleveland with 500 backpacks full of school supplies, every one of them carrying his Legendary 2 logo.
There was pizza and ice cream. He signed autographs. It was Attendance Awareness Month, and he told the students to keep showing up. Asked why he picked East Cleveland, he said "I like going to different places a lot of people wouldn't go." Seventeen months earlier, he had waited three days to hear his name called in the NFL draft.
Three days
Go back to the spring of 2025. Some people projected him as a first-round pick. Then the anonymous criticism started. A longtime NFL assistant, unnamed, told NFL Media he was entitled. Reports said his private interviews with teams had gone poorly. There were football questions too: he had been sacked 94 times in two seasons at Colorado, and scouts doubted his arm strength.
Round one came and went without him. On the second night, at his draft party, his phone rang. The caller said he was Mickey Loomis, general manager of the New Orleans Saints. It was a prank. The number had come from the iPad of Atlanta defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, and Ulbrich's 21-year-old son, Jax, admitted his part and apologized. The NFL fined the Falcons $250,000 and Ulbrich $100,000.
Day three. Saturday, April 26, 2025. Cleveland traded two later picks to Seattle to move up and took him in the fifth round, 144th overall. He signed a four-year rookie deal worth about $4.6 million, and he did it without an agent.
Then the fans weighed in with their wallets. Before he had played a regular-season snap, his was the fifth best-selling player jersey in the NFL from March 1 to July 31, 2025, on the NFLPA's list of Fanatics sales.
Coach Prime's son
None of the noise was new to him. His father is Deion Sanders, Coach Prime. At Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, Texas, Deion was the offensive coordinator and Shedeur was the quarterback. Shedeur committed to Florida Atlantic, then in November 2020 changed his mind and followed his dad to Jackson State, the historically Black university in Mississippi where Deion had become head coach.
As a freshman in 2021 he threw 29 touchdown passes and became the first HBCU player to win the Jerry Rice Award, given to the top freshman in the FCS. Jackson State won the SWAC championship in both of his seasons there.
When his father took the Colorado job, Shedeur went with him to Boulder. In 2023 he set the school's single-season passing record, but he was sacked 52 times, and a fracture in his back kept him out of the finale at Utah. Colorado finished 4-8. In 2024 he completed 74 percent of his passes, the best mark in the FBS, and won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.
That same year, at Colorado, he released his first song. It was called Perfect Timing. Hold on to that title.
Seven starts
His rookie year started with him as the emergency third quarterback, inactive for the first five games. On November 16, Dillon Gabriel left a game against Baltimore with a head injury, and Shedeur was in. He completed 4 of 16 passes for 47 yards with an interception in a 23-16 loss. "I don't think I played good at all," he said. A week later came Las Vegas, and the win, and the line about people wanting to see him fail.
Then came Tennessee. On December 7 against Tennessee he threw for 364 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another. Cleveland lost 31-29 when the final two-point try, run with him off the field, failed. The next day coach Kevin Stefanski named him the starter for the rest of the season, saying he had "constantly and consistently gotten better."
He went 3-4 as a starter, with 1,400 passing yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions. In the finale at Cincinnati on January 4, 2026, he drove the Browns 40 yards in 10 plays, and Andre Szmyt hit a 49-yard field goal as time expired. Browns 20, Bengals 18. Cleveland finished 5-12, and Stefanski was fired the next day.
Three weeks later, with Drake Maye headed to the Super Bowl, Shedeur was added to the AFC Pro Bowl roster as a replacement. He was the first Browns quarterback named to the Pro Bowl since Derek Anderson after the 2007 season. Not everyone liked it. Giants lineman Jermaine Eluemunor posted that the Pro Bowl was "a joke."
In the flesh
The backpacks were not a one-off. On June 23, 2025, an explosion and fire tore through the Rainbow Terrace Apartments in Cleveland's Garden Valley neighborhood and forced dozens of families from their homes. Shedeur was out of town. On July 16, before his first training camp, he hosted the Garden Valley Fun Fest right there, with food trucks, bounce houses, free haircuts and games. "You have to actually go out there and be in the flesh," he said.
On July 19, 2026, he ran a free football camp for more than 500 kids at Brooklyn Memorial Stadium in Brooklyn, Ohio. Two campers went home with diamond chains. Two months later came the backpacks in East Cleveland.
On September 25, the NFL Players Association named him its Week 3 Community MVP and donated $10,000 to his Legendary Impact Foundation. The honor makes him eligible for the Alan Page Community Award, the union's highest honor for community service. Remember the name of that first song? He used the same two words when the award came.
"I truly believe in perfect timing, and being named Community MVP means a lot."
Shedeur Sanders, in the NFLPA's Community MVP announcement, September 25, 2026
The Shedeur economy
Here is the part the snap counts do not show. The NFLPA's annual filing with the Department of Labor showed he earned $17.7 million in group licensing income over the 2025 season. That is a record. The old mark was Tom Brady's $9.5 million. Union executive director JC Tretter said $15 million of it came from trading cards.
That total does not include his own endorsements, which Front Office Sports listed as Gatorade, Delta, Beats by Dre and Ralph Lauren. Counting all licensed merchandise over the year from March 2025 through February 2026, he ranked 31st on the NFLPA's player sales list. His rookie contract, for comparison, pays him about $1 million a year.
QB2
Cleveland hired Todd Monken as head coach in January. Shedeur competed with Deshaun Watson through the preseason, and on August 24 Monken named Watson the starter.
Shedeur has played once this season, in a 21-18 win over Carolina on September 27, completing his only pass for no gain. On October 18 the Browns beat Baltimore 13-10 to move to 4-2, tied for first in the AFC North. Tennessee, the team he threw for 364 against last December, visits Sunday.
On October 14 he signed with his first agent, Adie von Gontard of Young Money APAA Sports, who also represents his former Colorado teammate Travis Hunter. His contract runs through 2028. The trade deadline is November 10.
The morning Monken told him Watson would start, the two of them sat down and talked for a long time. Afterward, his coach described what he saw.
GAMECHANGER™"We met this morning for a good long time and all he had was a smile on his face."
Todd Monken, Browns head coach, to reporters on telling Sanders that Deshaun Watson would start, August 24, 2026
Reporting draws on the Associated Press, ESPN, NFL.com, CBS Sports, NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk, Bleacher Report, Fox News, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Front Office Sports, Cleveland19, News 5 Cleveland, FOX 8 Cleveland, Athlon Sports, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Atlanta News First, HBCU Gameday, Ebony, College Football Network, Fox Sports, the NFL Players Association, ClevelandBrowns.com, CUBuffs.com and Pro Football Reference.
Sources (55)
NFLPA: Cleveland's Shedeur Sanders selected as Week 3 NFLPA Community MVP · ClevelandBrowns.com: Sanders selected as Week 3 NFLPA Community MVP · Pro Football Talk: NFLPA names Shedeur Sanders Community MVP for Week 3 · News 5 Cleveland: Sanders named Community MVP after East Cleveland backpack giveaway · Bleacher Report: Sanders gives away 500 backpacks and school supplies · Pro Football Talk: Deion Sanders' son Shedeur commits to Jackson State · College Football Network: Shedeur Sanders in high school · HBCU Gameday: Shedeur Sanders wins Jerry Rice Award · Ebony: Sanders becomes first HBCU player to win the Jerry Rice Award · AP via News4Jax: Sanders missed finale at Utah with fracture in back · CUBuffs.com: Sanders wins Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award · ClevelandBrowns.com: 5 things to know about No. 144 pick Shedeur Sanders · AP via CPR: Sanders' long wait ends when Browns take him in the 5th round · Boston Globe: Why Shedeur Sanders fell in the NFL draft · ABC7: NFL fines Falcons and Jeff Ulbrich over Sanders prank call · Atlanta News First: Ulbrich's son behind draft weekend prank call · CBS Sports: Browns sign Sanders to four-year, $4.6 million rookie contract · NFLPA: Top 50 player jersey sales, March 1 to July 31, 2025 · Yahoo Sports: Saquon Barkley, Shedeur Sanders among top jersey sellers · AP via Lufkin Daily News: Sanders questionable with back injury · AP via KSL: Sanders has a rough NFL debut after relieving Gabriel · CBS Sports: Sanders wins his first NFL start as Browns beat Raiders 24-10 · NFL.com: Sanders' first 300-yard game not enough against Titans · Sports Illustrated: Sanders responds to being taken off the field for two-point try · CBS Sports: Sanders named Browns starting QB for rest of 2025 · AP via Circleville Herald: Field goal on last play gives Browns 20-18 win over Bengals · AP via WTOP: Todd Monken will be the next Browns head coach · Fox News: Sanders named Pro Bowl replacement quarterback · ClevelandBrowns.com: Shedeur Sanders named to the Pro Bowl · AOL: Still plenty Shedeur Sanders did as a rookie · Fox News: NFL star labels Pro Bowl 'a joke' after Sanders named replacement · Cleveland19: Sanders hosts community event for Rainbow Terrace explosion victims · CBS Sports: Sanders and Mike Hall Jr. host event for community impacted by fire · Yahoo News: Sanders hosts event supporting Garden Valley · News 5 Cleveland: Sanders holds youth football camp for over 500 kids · ClevelandBrowns.com: Sanders and Browns host youth football camp · Sports Illustrated: Sanders makes musical debut with new song · Fox Sports: Sanders releases first song, Perfect Timing · FOX 4: Deshaun Watson named Browns starting quarterback over Sanders · Newsweek: Browns coach reveals Sanders' reaction to losing starting job · Pro Football Talk: Monken on Sanders, 'excited about the long game for him' · Pro Football Reference: Shedeur Sanders stats and game logs · Yahoo Sports: Sanders camp sends clear message · Bleacher Report: Browns stun Ravens with late field goal · Athlon Sports: Browns' Watson and Sanders quarterback decision · Front Office Sports: Sanders' record-breaking $17.7 million NFLPA group licensing income · Front Office Sports: Sanders' $17.7M in licensing income was mostly from trading cards · Sports Illustrated: Sanders tops Tom Brady's NFLPA licensing record · Cleveland19: Browns news, May 31, 2026, the Shedeur economy · NFLPA: Top 50 player sales list, March 1, 2025 to February 28, 2026 · Sports Illustrated: NFLPA top 50 player sales list and the Browns · Bleacher Report: Sanders hires Travis Hunter's agent · Yahoo Sports: Browns' Shedeur Sanders announces major move · Cleveland19: Browns news, October 15, 2026, have your people call my people · CBS Sports: Sanders trade talk and Browns landing spots