Shedeur Sanders experienced a shocking slide in the 2025 NFL Draft. At one point, the former Colorado Buffaloes star quarterback was mocked to go as high as No. 1 overall. But in the actual draft, Sanders fell all the way to the fifth round before the Cleveland Browns swooped in to take him 144th overall.
Mel Kiper Jr. may die on the hill that Sanders deserved to be a first-round quarterback. But even if Sanders isn’t a first-round draft pick, he was covered like one as a rookie.
It remains to be seen whether the Sanders media machine will keep firing on all cylinders into the 2026 NFL season, but if it does, Sanders won’t know the difference.
Sanders appeared on Kevin Clark’s This Is Football from Browns training camp, and he gave a glimpse — and I do mean a glimpse — into how he handles media criticism. This offseason, he said, he focused on “understanding what really matters in this world and what doesn’t.”
I asked Shedeur Sanders about his mindset change in year 2, which he said is focused on staying in the moment each day and ignoring the outside world.
“Understand what really matters in this world.”
Really enjoyed this sitdown. pic.twitter.com/AzQhWkKb9A
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) August 5, 2026
When Clark asked how and when his mindset changed, Sanders said with a smile, “When everything changed for me, when the script got flipped on me.” Sanders played coy when Clark asked him to specifically identify when the switch flipped, but he made one point clear: “Just turn on the TV, you’ll be able to see it.”
“I don’t think there’s anything negative about it, but I don’t really like when people have platforms and don’t use it for the right reasons,” Sanders said of the media criticism that arrived at his doorstep since becoming an NFL quarterback. “I don’t respect it. So, it’s like, things I don’t respect, I don’t give my time to.”
Clark gave him the floor to call out any specific criticism he’s seen about himself on TV, but Sanders couldn’t oblige: “I don’t watch TV. I don’t watch TV at all.”
With Clark, Sanders echoed what Deion Sanders, his father, told reporters almost exactly one year ago.
“He doesn’t get caught up with the rhetoric with the media,” the Colorado head football coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer said. “He was coached through that when he was a kid, so we’ve always gone through that, and he has always navigated his way. Some of the stuff is just ignorant, but he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
Sanders can change the narrative if he wins the starting job over the disgraced Deshaun Watson and plays well under new head coach Todd Monken.
About Megan Armstrong
Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.