ESPN analyst gives incredibly bold take about Shedeur Sanders impact

The hype for Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders has been felt all across social media lately.

The hype has been growing for him since his college days for the Colorado Buffalos, and now that he’s officially had his taste of NFL action, hype has reached an all-time high.

ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins had a major take over just how powerful Sanders’ impact has been, calling him the most powerful black man of the last decade and a half.

🚨🚨TRENDING🚨🚨

ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins says that #Browns 5th round pick Shedeur Sanders is the most powerful black man since President Barack Obama.

“He’s powerful black man since 2009.”

Wow 😳😳😳
pic.twitter.com/gz7bLAIWUG
— MLFootball (@MLFootball) November 25, 2025

“Shedeur Sanders is the most powerful black man since 2009. You know what happened in 2009? That’s when president Obama got elected into office,” Perkins said. “He’s the most powerful black man in sports. Matter fact f-- black men, he’s the most powerful player in sports.”

Sanders made just the first start of his NFL career Sunday, leading the Browns to a 24-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. It breaks a long streak of Browns quarterbacks losing in their first career start.

Sanders had a solid game, tossing for 209 yards and a touchdown, while throwing one pick. The stats weren’t anything crazy, but for a quarterback making his first career start after starting the season as a third-string, it’s certainly impressive. If he can build from that kind of start, he could find a long and successful NFL career.

Sanders has already done enough to hang onto a starting job in Cleveland, despite fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel being cleared from concussion protocol for the week. While beating the Raiders isn’t a particularly impressive feat, he’ll see a much better opponent this week against the San Francisco 49ers.

Sanders would even get a shoutout from the currently president, Donald Trump, after the win.

Perkins would go on to explain what he means by calling Sanders powerful.

“When I say powerful, it’s powerful because there are two sides to it. You have the black community, he bringing the whole black community together. I ain’t ran across one black person that said one bad thing about Shedeur,” Perkins said. “He has the balance. He was the balance of that I’m arrogant, but I’m humble too. He having fun with that shit. On top of that, y’all want me to fail but it ain’t going to happen.”

Meanwhile, Barack Obama was the 44th president, serving from 2009-17. He is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, along with many other major accomplishments to his name.

While a bold comparison like this from Perkins may be quite the overexaggeration, there is no denying that Sanders is having an impact across all the sports world right now. If he keeps developing, public perception of the Cleveland Browns may soon be changing.