Shedeur Sanders was the biggest story of the NFL preseason. But now that the regular season has began, the former Colorado star has been forgotten about by almost everybody, including maybe even his own team.
Sanders showed some flashes in the preseason, but it ultimately was not enough to move up the Cleveland Browns depth chart. The rookie quarterback was placed as the third-stringer behind starter Joe Flacco and fellow first-year player Dillon Gabriel.
All of the hype and debate around Shedeur Sanders has died down after Week 1, but it might be reignited again thanks to comments from Tony Rizzo of ESPN Cleveland.
On Thursday, Rizzo said on his show that he is hearing from his sources that Sanders (as third-string quarterback) is not getting any reps in practice, even running the scout team. Instead, Rizzo says that Bailey Zappe, who just arrived a few weeks ago in Cleveland, is doing the honors.
“I’m hearing Shedeur isn’t even running scout team, he’s literally watching everyone… why is he on the team, why is he here?,” – @TheRealTRizzo on what he’s hearing about Shedeur Sanders. pic.twitter.com/Mtx6bs0rZL
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) September 11, 2025
“I’m hearing Shedeur is not even running scout team. He’s literally watching everyone, Bailey Zappe’s running scout team. I don’t know if that’s true, that’s what I’m hearing,” Rizzo said.
“Why is he on the team? Why is he even here if that is what you think, because his jersey is selling? The Haslams don’t need jersey money, do they,” Rizzo asked. “Then why is he on the team if he’s not even running scout team?”
The coverage of Shedeur Sanders went ridiculously overboard during the preseason, reaching Bronny James levels of hyping up a player that was likely never going to be an actual contributor. The Browns quickly shut down any sense of an actual quarterback competition once the regular season drew near and the job was handed to Joe Flacco.
But one of the strongest takes around Sanders was that the Browns were setting him up to fail by the way they handled the quarterback through the offseason. This report from Tony Rizzo is only going to serve as fodder to revisit that conversation.
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