If you'd have said at the beginning of the NFL Draft that the Cleveland Browns would draft Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round, you'd have never believed he'd still be available there, but everyone would have seen that as fantastic value.
And if you said Sanders would land with the quarterback-needy Browns, it would have looked like a good fit too.
The path to which Sanders ended up in Cleveland couldn't have been fun for him. He fell through the first four rounds while everyone on social media got in line to take their cheap shots. But ultimately, the landing spot for Sanders wasn't that bad.
Even if Cleveland will be roundly mocked for its roundabout way of building a quarterback room.
Shedeur Sanders has to work his way up
Sanders has an uphill climb to start his career. First-round picks at quarterback will be pushed to the front of the depth chart as quickly as possible. Fifth-round picks are mostly expendable.
But it's not like the competition Sanders faces is too daunting. Joe Flacco is 40 years old, and the Browns are gambling that he can recapture the magic he had two years ago. He's not the future, obviously.
Kenny Pickett was brought aboard, but his cost was fairly low: a fifth-round pick and Dorian Thompson-Robinson. He was a first-round pick years ago, but not with the Browns. They don't have much investment into him.
The problem for Sanders is that there's another 2025 draftee ahead of him. Draft capital matters, and Cleveland using a third-round pick on Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel wasn't insignificant. Obviously the Browns liked Gabriel much more than Sanders. But just about every draft ranking had Sanders over Gabriel coming into the draft. All Sanders has to do is show he's better than Gabriel, and suddenly there's a path to Sanders becoming a part of Cleveland's long-term plan.
It won't be easy. Sanders will have to compete for his spot on the depth chart. But that's not unusual for a fifth-round pick. But it's not like Flacco, Pickett or Gabriel are so good that they'll be blocking him.
Browns take 'best player available'
The Browns didn't figure on doubling up at quarterback in the draft. But at the 144th overall pick, why not take a shot on Sanders? It's just odd to bring in four different quarterbacks in one offseason, with the idea that all four could make the roster.
"He's highly accurate. Can play well from the pocket. Very productive college career," Browns GM Andrew Berry said, via Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network. "It wasn't necessarily the plan going into weekend to draft two quarterbacks. We believe in best player available. We didn't expect him to be available in fifth."
Teams were obviously turned off by Sanders in the pre-draft process. Perhaps it was how he came off in meetings, that he didn't have the physical tools of a player who should be drafted higher or a combination of both. The instantly historic draft fall cost Sanders plenty of money, but it doesn't necessarily mean he can't have a successful NFL career.
Sanders might not be used to working his way up from the bottom. The odds are against him becoming a top-end quarterback; the hit rate of quarterbacks drafted in his range is extremely low. The Browns have four quarterbacks so practice reps won't be plentiful for any of them, especially Sanders. But Sanders has an opportunity. The Browns have been looking for a quarterback forever, and drafting multiple quarterbacks lets everyone know they don't have that much faith in anyone on the roster now. The Browns took four shots at quarterback and are hoping one hits. Maybe it will be Sanders.
Maybe the team fit with Sanders will ultimately be as memorable as the path it took to get there.
