ClutchPoints
To say that ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. is a fan of Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders would be an understatement.
The unabashed leader of the Sanders bandwagon ever since he landed in Colorado along with his father Deion, the 2025 NFL Draft took on a second life for how Kiper reacted to each quarterback being taken off the board following Cam Ward, with the veteran analyst openly decrying “lesser” players like Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel for being taken before the Buffs’ signal caller.
So naturally, when discussing 2026 draft prospects on his First Draft podcast with Field Yates and Mike Greenberg, Kiper threw his full support behind Sanders, noting he deserves to be the Browns’ QB1 next season for how well he’s played this season.
“It’s got to be Greeny. I mean, what the h*ll has it got to do? I mean, is there a way to get into this? I mean, I don’t know what else the kids needs to do. I mean, Josh Allen had haters in Year 3. So if Josh Allen has haters in Year 2 and 3 of his career, there’s no way Shedeur can avoid it. But I watched every play, every snap of Shador Sanders, and he should be proud of what he had to go through and survive and to come out winning that game yesterday, driving him down to get in the field goal range inside of 50 yards to make that field goal and win it after, I guess, it could have been 21-12 had Cannella caught the football,” Kiper Jr. declared.
“Drops hurt that team all year, to be able to show more mobility than anybody thought. The accuracy’s there. Everything about Shedeur Sanders screams he’s the quarterback. But if people are going to negative in April, they’re going to be negative now because they’re going to look, oh, where was he ranked? Forget that. Look at the interceptions that were off of Jerry Jeudy, off of Judkins’ shoulder, batted balls, like Brady, but Burrow had one yesterday, batted in a pick six. You gonna blame Burrow for that? No, you’re gonna blame Shedeur for a couple of batted balls that were picked up. You shouldn’t. Okay. So you’re going to be fair here.”
Locked in with the sixth overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, plus a pick at No. 19 or lower from the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Browns aren’t particularly positioned well to land one of the top-2 quarterbacks in this year’s class, Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore. Fortunately, Kiper doesn’t believe they need to, as, in his opinion, Sanders has proven he can be the guy and deserves a chance to prove it further this fall.
“So really, when you look at what Shador did this year, not having any training camp with, never with the ones, defense, offense, be thrown out there playing in brutal weather conditions, not in domes, not in domes, in great weather and brutal weather conditions,” Kiper said. “If you’re...
