Over a month has passed since Shedeur Sanders slipped from a projected top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft all the way to the fifth round and pick No. 144, and while there have been a handful of theories, it’s unclear how or why that slide happened.
The main theory was that teams weren’t interested in the media circus that comes along with him and weren’t pleased with how he conducted himself in pre-draft interviews.
However, one insider recently pointed out there is a “core issue” with his on-field play that contributed to the slide.
Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com said Sanders isn’t able to get the ball out quickly to avoid pressure.
“But the core issue with Sanders has nothing to do with how he looks in shorts and no pads in the absence of a pass rush. It’s what he can do in the pros when the pressure is on and the ball must come out,” Cabot wrote. “At Colorado, he took too many sacks — an FBS-high 94 in two seasons — and drifted backward too often when the ball should’ve been thrown to a target or tossed away. At times, he needed to let a play die with perhaps less regard for his FBS-high 74% completion rate.”
This may be a legitimate issue that needs to be corrected.
Luckily for Sanders, he’ll have plenty of time to work on it behind the scenes as he is slated to be the No. 4 quarterback in camp.
Browns quarterbacks were sacked 66 times last season, so everyone in the organization needs to prioritize getting the ball out faster, not just Sanders.
Joe Flacco always did a solid job avoiding sacks over the years, so Sanders does have a veteran to learn from.
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