The Cleveland Browns kick off their 2025 NFL season with a Week 1 matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals. Most of the discussion around the Browns has been about the future, specifically the future as it involves QB Shedeur Sanders and, to a lesser degree, QB Dillon Gabriel. Starting 40-year-old Joe Flacco at the game’s most important position tends to push people to think ahead.
The Sanders fascination makes sense given his father, Deion Sanders, his success at Jackson State and Colorado, his perceived NFL draft stock and fall, as well as his stellar play in the first preseason game. It has gone over the top at times, but Sanders has handled himself well throughout his first taste of pro experience.
According to a report from Diana Russini, Sanders fans will have to wait a long while until they see him on the field in an NFL game:
However, don’t plan on seeing the fifth-round rookie on the field this season unless things get really weird. Cleveland believes in Joe Flacco’s experience and Dillon Gabriel’s development as the backup.
Russini does share that the rumors she is hearing are that the selection of Sanders was rooted in Cleveland GM Andrew Berry’s belief that HC Kevin Stefanski and the coaching staff can “bring out the best in Sanders and help him grow into an NFL quarterback. It is noted that the Browns want to keep developing the young quarterback, but, as noted above, that development may not include time on the field this year.
Given the description of “really weird,” it would not be surprising if practice squad QB Bailey Zappe or Tyler Huntley, currently on the Baltimore Ravens practice squad, saw snaps for Cleveland before Sanders.
Things change quickly in the NFL, but for now, we are unlikely to see Shedeur Sanders on the field for the Browns in 2025.
