Thoughts on Shedeur Sanders First NFL Start

Shedeur Sanders is getting his chance to start this Sunday. I'm excited to see how he performs. Let’s discuss.

A bunch of people are out here dumping on him right now for his performance last week, but that needs to be put into context. The Browns are a bad, bad offensive football team. They have a great defense led by Myles Garrett. He's having an unreal season, but no one knows it because the rest of the team is not very good. They seem to stay in games for a quarter or even a half, but after that, the talent on the other team wins out. Garrett can only do so much, and he is, but the rest of the team is letting him down. This offense though, they're horrendous. They cannot put drives together. They have no semblance of a run game. Sanders will be the third QB to start a game for them this season. Joe Flacco tried his best, but he is old, cannot move all that much and played behind a very bad o line. Dillon Gabriel never put it together. He's a rookie so it makes sense, but he didn't do a thing that stood out and oftentimes he was picking himself up from being hit constantly. Now Sanders gets his chance.

Look, there were times last season, when he was still in college, where he was being projected as a top 10 pick. I even saw some people say he could be the first overall pick. I never saw that in him at Colorado, but I definitely saw the talent to be a late first round pick. The line he played behind at Colorado was not very good. But Sanders made up for that by getting rid of the ball quickly. Or, he would get out of the pocket and throw a beautiful deep ball to Travis Hunter or Joe Horn Jr. He made some of the best throws I've seen on the run last season. I usually don't watch many other teams closely except for Michigan. But, Colorado kind of became a must watch for me last season to see Travis Hunter play. While Hunter was an incredible watch, I also saw a ton of Shedeur Sanders. And while he would frustrate me at times, the kid would make plays that left me in awe. Those deep throws on the run were awesome. For those throws alone I thought he could flourish on a team like Baltimore, playing behind Lamar Jackson, or, if forced into action early, the Jets would have allowed him to make mistakes on the field, and they could have benefitted from him when he played well. This is no disrespect to Justin Fields or Tyrod Taylor, but Sanders is younger and has way more potential than both of them combined. And the Jets are already a tire fire, so why not take a chance on him. I feel like he would be in the same boat as Jaxson Dart or Cam Ward right now if the Jets had taken him earlier in the draft.

As the draft approached I saw all the stuff saying that he may have a fall on draft day. I saw a bunch of people the night before saying that he may slip all the way to the end of round one. I saw a bunch of people saying a team like the Raiders were going to try and snag him late if they could. That never happened. Round one came and went and Sanders was still on the board. When I saw this I thought, well, he had a very bad bowl game against BYU, and apparently he interviewed poorly. I figured these were the only reasons why he was not drafted on night one, but surely he was going to go on day two. There was no way he was going to slip that far. Well, he was not taken until the fifth round. guys like Dillon Gabriel and Tyler Shough were drafted before him. When it got past the fourth round, all the teams passing him up felt personal. I guess they were "trying to teach him a lesson". When the Browns finally drafted him I felt like they got a steal. Sanders was a first round talent that fell into their lap in the fifth round. If it were me, I would have had him fighting for the starting spot from day one. That didn't happen, people threw mud on his name, he has been nothing but professional since he showed up there and now he gets his chance. I don't expect him to light the world on fire this Sunday, but I also don't expect him to flounder. He has the skills to be good. He already played behind a terrible O line in college, so the Browns line will be nothing new for him. He will make mistakes, as all rookies do, but I bet he will also make some throws that are great. I'd love to see him simply prove that the teams that kept passing on him were wrong. If he were to throw for 180 and a few tds, that would be a massive success.

The one thing I know for sure is that I will be keeping my eye on how he does, which means I will be checking in on a Cleveland Browns game during the 2025 NFL season. And that has absolutely nothing to do with the Brows at all. And, if nothing else, i'll get to watch Myles Garrett play football, and that's always a treat. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Thoughts on the 2025 NFL Draft

Now that the NFL draft has come and gone, I have some thoughts. Let’s go.

First off, the Packers draft was kind of dull for me as a fan. They got a wideout, one I'm not all that thrilled about, and then they filled some positions of need. I know this is a good thing, but I was hoping for some kind of chances being taken. I wanted them to take some risks, but they did what they always do. I guess I shouldn't complain that much.

I love what the Titans did. They still have more to do to rebuild, but getting Cam Ward was great. He should have been the number one overall pick and I'm glad he was. He seems like the type of kid that is going to have a long and successful career. I hope for nothing but the best for him. They also got defensive help in the earlier rounds and drafted depth and strong players in the later rounds.

I like what the Arizona Cardinals did too. They got Walter Nolen late in round 1 and Will Johnson early in round 2. They can be day one starters. They pretty much focused on defense the whole draft, only taking one offensive player, a lineman. They have the offense to win, and now they are trying to shore up the defense.

The Bears did the opposite of the Cardinals, taking mostly offensive weapons. They got a tight end as a safety blanket, they got a first round wideout talent in round 2 and they took explosive players for the future of their offense in later rounds.

On the opposite end of the draft, I cannot fathom what the Saints were doing last weekend. Tyler Shough in the second round may have been the reach of the draft. Devin Neal is solid, but he cannot stay healthy. Taking Banks at nine overall was nuts. The Commanders also drafted Josh Connerly Jr way too soon. I feel like Trey Amos was a reach. And, for someone who watches a ton of college football, I don't even know who their other three picks ever are. That's not a great sign.

My biggest takeaway, and what I will spend the rest of my blog talking about, the slide and the coverage of Shedeur Sanders. I'll talk about the fall to the fifth round first.

This shouldn't have happened. Sanders is too good of a talent to fall that far. I had him as my second overall QB in this draft. Ward is leaps and bounds better, but Sanders is no slouch. He threw for a ton of yards with no threat of a run game and not the best offensive line. He has the confidence to be a starter in the NFL too. He was accurate and made smart plays most of the time. For guys like Shough and Dillon Gabriel and Jaxson Dart to go before him, that is absurd. The Giants and Saints will most likely regret not taking Sanders. The slide has to be due to bad interviews and an air of cockiness, but he should have been taken no later than the second round. He is way, way too good.

The coverage of Sanders, on the other hand, was appalling, for good and bad reasons. People are going to want to cover someone as famous and talked about as much as Sanders. That is the nature of the beast in the modern era of media coverage. But, to put the focus all on Sanders, and barely talk about Cam Ward, that disgusted me. Ward has all the tools, did great in every interview and seems to truly love the game of football. He worked his way up to being the top overall pick and it didn't seem to bother him wherever he was drafted. I have since watched videos of him training leading up to the draft, and this kid has everything a franchise could ever want in a QB prospect. But ESPN and Yahoo and Bleacher Report, all they ever talked about was Sanders. ESPN, who was covering the first round of the draft, didn't even show all of Cam Ward's interview after being drafted. They decided to cut it short and go focus on Sanders and what he was doing. This is not good for "America's sports leader". Ward earned the right to be the most talked about as the top prospect, but ESPN would rather show someone's downfall, and they didn't let up until he was drafted, and they even went a little further after Sanders was picked. That stinks for Sanders, but more so for Ward. Cam Ward did everything right, but because he isn't all about himself and how to further his brand, the big media companies decided he wasn't worthy enough. Well, I think Cam Ward is worthy enough and I'm happy for him and the Tennessee Titans.

This seems to be a match for both sides and I wish nothing but success for both parties moving forward. I'm officially a Cam Ward superfan now. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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