Former NFL Coach Reveals Harsh Truth About Browns' Shedeur Sanders

A former NFL coach has unveiled a harsh truth about Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

Jun 12, 2025; Berea, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) during mini camp at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

When it comes to Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders, things seem to get lost in the fog. When he performs well, people exaggerate it. When he has a pedestrian showing, people tend to embellish how poorly he played, too.

Such is the case for a player who carries as much hype as Sanders, who has been heavily covered ever since his days at Colorado.

We're seeing very clear evidence of that this offseason, with many lauding Sanders for how superb he looked in organized team activities and mandatory minicamp.

However, former NFL head coach Eric Mangini has revealed the cold hard truth about the Browns rookie, noting that he hasn't really faced actual competition just yet.

“All of his reps have been with the backend guys," Mangini said on The Herd. "He hasn’t gotten any reps with the ones. That's a good decision because as soon as he gets in with the ones, then the hype train is going to roll ever further. I say he numbers have to be taken with a gigantic grain of salt. There’s a lot of learning going on for him and to see the numbers, that’s positive, but he’s also working versus the backend of the roster, so his numbers should be a little bit higher just based on that, as well."

Essentially, we haven't seen Sanders perform against quality NFL players yet, so we probably shouldn't be getting too excited about his results in offseason workouts.

The 23-year-old was selected by Cleveland in the fifth round of the NFL Draft and is coming off of a brilliant 2024 campaign in which he threw for 37 touchdown passes while completing 74 percent of his passes, which led the nation.

There's definitely a chance that Sanders can become the Browns' franchise quarterback, but Mangini is right: we should probably dial it back a bit right now.

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