Card Market Buzz Entering Final Week of NFL Preseason
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The Cleveland Browns and head coach Todd Monken made waves in the NFL when they named Deshaun Watson the starting QB for Week 1 over Shedeur Sanders. How might their card markets respond to the news? Is this a good time to pick up some Shedeur Sanders cards as his market dips? Could Monken's buy-in on Deshaun Watson help card collectors turn around the 88% decrease in market value since his rookie season?
Let's take a look together.
Shedeur Sanders: Most Popular Guy in Cleveland?
In the Cleveland Browns QB room sits Shedeur Sanders, a well-known football player who has been in the spotlight since high school. When "Primetime" is your dad, and eventually your coach, the spotlight follows. Shedeur didn't get drafted as high as some expected and slipped to the 5th round to the Browns at pick No. 144.
Year 2 isn't off to a much better start. Judging from public displays in Cleveland and on social media, others share that sentiment for a variety of reasons. The old adage says that the backup quarterback is the most popular guy in town, and this is usually uttered during a losing season. However, in this case, it might be true before the first game of the regular season. Maybe there are opportunities in Shedeur Sanders' card market, which has been declining. Could this market dip provide an opportunity? Some collectors may benefit if/when the reins are turned over to him, and especially if he plays better than Watson.
Let's look at a couple of examples here.
2025 Donruss Orange Auto PSA 10 Shedeur Sanders
For instance, let's take his 2025 Donruss Rated Rookie Orange Auto, graded as a PSA 10. This card was sold earlier this year, in February 2026, for $300 and again in May 2026 for $307.
Then, on August 26th, 2026, the same version of the card sold for $186, according to Card Ladder.
2025 Donruss Downtown PSA 9 Shedeur Sanders
Another example of the current dip in the card market of Shedeur Sanders is his 2025 Donruss Downtown Rookie Card.
This card, with a PSA 9 grade has a population of 263 and sold for $415.00 on August 25, 2026 and other sales across July and August of 2026 show similar sales in this price range. Compare that to sales in March of 2026 which had consistent sales in the $550 to $590 price range.
Deshaun Watson's Card Market Precipitous Decline
There have been plenty of reports on the highest of highs and the lowest of lows that have come with NFL fame and heinous allegations regarding the individual that has recently been named the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback by new head coach, and offensive wizard, Todd Monken. We don't wish to weigh-in on any of the details, nor do we aim to minimize the many allegations. We do want to view Deshaun Watson's card market over the years to try to understand the implications for collectors.
Looking at the Card Ladder Index (as seen below), it is hard to imagine things could get much worse with a -88.27% rate of growth since 2018. In other words if you purchased the Deshaun Watson cards that are reflected in the index for $1,000 they would have grown to $4,000 in value in 2023, and would be worth $117 today. Yikes.
Some say that football can be the ultimate meritocracy and that on-field play outweighs all other factors, and it seems that Todd Monken might share in that belief. Or, maybe there are other things going on that aren't apparent from the outside. Whatever it turns out to be, it will be interesting to see if collectors buy-in. What if Watson's play silences the critics (football critics that is)? It could turn out to be an interesting case study.
Maybe, if someone is wanting to collect Cleveland Browns football cards, there might be some other good options out there like Quinshon Judkins.
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D. Allen Thompson is a contributing collectibles writer with eclectic tastes. He provides enthusiastic commentary on the ever-evolving world of trading cards against the backdrop of the broader historical, economic, and societal contexts in which they exist. He is on a journey to find fascinating stories and meet interesting people while using trading cards as the guideposts to lead the way to the American Dream.