Not everyone is buying into the Shedeur Sanders hype heading into 2026, and Bleacher Report’s analysis of his sophomore outlook is about as cold as it gets.
Writer Alex Kay broke down the second-year prospects for a number of players entering their sophomore NFL seasons, and the assessment of Sanders was not encouraging.
“Despite the promise Sanders showed in Year 1, it remains to be seen if he’ll go on to have a successful NFL career. The QB finished 2026 having completed an unsightly 56.6 percent of his throws while getting picked off 10 times and taking 23 sacks. There are too many things that need to go right for Sanders to have a sophomore breakout. He may eventually develop into a franchise passer, but expecting a massive Year 2 leap isn’t realistic,” Kay wrote.
But here is what the Bleacher Report piece is leaving out entirely, and it is the most important context in the entire conversation.
Sanders posted those numbers behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL last season. Cleveland’s offensive line was an absolute disaster from week one. Sanders was running for his life on a weekly basis, absorbing hits that no young quarterback should have to absorb while trying to learn a new system at the professional level. Twenty-three sacks is a staggering number, but when the protection in front of you collapses before the play has a chance to develop, the quarterback is going to take sacks and be forced into bad decisions.
That offensive line does not exist anymore. Spencer Fano is the new left tackle. Zion Johnson, Elgton Jenkins, and Teven Jenkins anchor the interior. Tytus Howard holds down the right side. Parker Brailsford is competing for the starting center job. The entire unit has been rebuilt from the ground up over one offseason.
Beyond the line, Sanders now has KC Concepcion, Denzel Boston, Jerry Jeudy, Harold Fannin Jr., and Quinshon Judkins surrounding him. The supporting cast that made his rookie numbers look ugly is gone. The supporting cast that could make his sophomore numbers look completely different is in place.
The Bleacher Report analysis is not wrong about what Sanders did in year one. It is just ignoring everything that has changed around him heading into year two. And in the NFL, context is everything.
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