Colin Cowherd Makes Surprising Choice for NFL's Best Rookie QB

Who saw this coming on draft night?

Colin Cowherd has been impressed by Shedeur Sanders's play. / The Herd on X

On a football Friday, Colin Cowherd relayed a conversation he had recently about Shedeur Sanders and how he could never understand how he could miss that badly on a quarterback as the Colorado product famously dropped from a late-first round projection all the way to the fifth round. But that got him to thinking about how good Sanders has been since taking the reins in Cleveland.

"Since becoming a starter, Shedeur is the best rookie QB in the league," Cowherd said.

"Every team in this league passed on him at least 4 times... Since becoming a starter, Shedeur is the best rookie QB in the league."@colincowherd thinks a lot of teams will regret passing on drafting Shedeur Sanders pic.twitter.com/5osOEfNiMW

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) December 12, 2025

The FS1 host pointed to Sanders's ability to get something out of a receiving room that ranks weakest in the NFL and how a shaky offensive line hasn't stopped production as major signs of optimism.

"He's got nothing to work with," Cowherd said. "Five touchdowns, two picks, 94 passer rating. It should also noted that Shedeur Sanders did not get any work with the 1s before he started."

Cowherd offered up some impressive stats Sanders has posted since taking over the No. 1 job. His 756 passing yards, six total touchdowns, 12 big pass plays and 8.3 yards per attempt are tops among all rookies.

Cleveland is 1-2 in those games with the win coming against the lowly Las Vegas Raiders and another close call against the equally bad Tennessee Titans. Sanders was not on the field for the deciding two-point conversion try, creating another sideshow for Kevin Stefanski. He will have to negotiate three tough defenses in the Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers before closing the season against the Cincinnati Bengals.

It's all on the table for him. Performing at the level he's been performing—and certainly if he improves upon it—will make him the odds-on favorite to start next year as he hopefully blossoms into a franchise quarterback. That's if Deshaun Watson doesn't re-assume the role.

It also might be wise to dive into what being the "best rookie quarterback in the league" since starting actually means.

It means Sanders played better than Minnesota's Max Brosmer. And Tennesee's Cam Ward. Better than the Giants' Jaxson Dart and the Saints' Tyler Shough.

The numbers don't really lie.

Brosmer got one outing and it went horrifically with four interceptions. Ward only competed 50% of his throws against the Browns and a week earlier could muster only three points against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Dart returned from injury and was predictably overmatched by the Patriots' defense. Shough has connected on 68% of his passes during that stretch but also turned the ball over five times.

Sanders, by almost all metrics including the eye test, has stood as the clear best option.

Yet Dart, when he was healthy, has a serious case with legitimately solid dual-threat ability and moxie, to be cast with the highest ceiling of the group. Ward still feels like quite an unknown entity considering the general mess of the Titans.

Perhaps what's important here is that, despite everything, it's very realistic to imagine a world where Sanders proves all the teams that passed on him wrong. That's not nothing. Things could have gone any number of ways and on the whole it's been wildly encouraging for both him and the Browns.

That skips an important step of what the heck the organization is going to do at the position in the offseason but is still a solid place for Sanders to be.

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