NFL legend Eric Dickerson feels going to the “horrible” Cleveland Browns was one of the worst things that could have happened for Shedeur Sanders at the start of his career.
“He goes to a team like the Browns, that’s not a good football team,” Dickerson said during an interview with TMZ Sports (2:10 mark). “I hate to see him there, I wish they would have cut him. Let him have another opportunity with a better football team.”
Cleveland selected Sanders with a fifth-round pick and ended a shocking draft slide for the Colorado quarterback who was once seen as a surefire first-rounder. He is now third on the depth chart behind Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel, who was a third-round pick in this year’s draft.
And that spot as the third-stringer may change as well if Deshaun Watson eventually returns from an Achilles injury.
“I don’t think he’ll get a fair shot there because I don’t think they really wanted him,” Dickerson said. “… I’m not a Browns fan at all, I could care less. But I’m a Shedeur fan. I’m a Deion Sanders fan.”
He also wasn’t happy that Sanders fell to the fifth round after he was the 2024 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.
“I know they don’t care for his dad, and I think Deion is a great guy,” the Hall of Famer said. “… I just feel like it was wrong what they did to him. I mean, look, Mel Kiper said in 30 years he’s never seen nothing like this. There was something to that.”
His comments come after ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the Baltimore Ravens planned to select Sanders with a fifth-round pick at No. 141 overall but decided not to because the quarterback made it clear he didn’t want to be stuck behind Lamar Jackson on the depth chart.
The mindset is understandable for someone who was looking for early playing time, as the only way Sanders would have played meaningful snaps on his rookie contract behind one of the league’s best players was if Jackson suffered an injury.
Still, it also would have meant learning from a two-time MVP inside a Baltimore franchise that has experienced plenty of success. The Ravens seem like exactly the type of franchise Dickerson wanted Sanders to go to, but the former running back told TMZ Sports he doesn’t believe the report.
Alas, Sanders is now with a Browns franchise that has won one playoff game since the 1994 campaign and is off to an 0-2 start in 2025.
If Cleveland loses a handful of more games early in the season and drops out of playoff contention, the possibility of Gabriel or Sanders receiving playing time will become one of the most intriguing storylines surrounding the AFC North team.
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