Inside the Browns' decision to draft Shedeur Sanders

BEREA, Ohio -- Minutes before the 144th overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft is announced Saturday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry FaceTimes Shedeur Sanders -- a call that finally ends one of the more surprising draft slides in recent memory.

Sanders has exchanged his flashy attire for a more casual outfit. On Thursday night, the glitzy opener of the three-day draft, he wore a black leather jacket and large diamond pendant -- each carrying his signature logo, a dollar sign with a superscript "2" -- in anticipation of hearing his name called in the first round during an extravagant watch party with family and friends back home in Canton, Texas. Two days later and five rounds into the draft, Sanders wears a black cutoff T-shirt as he stands in his backyard with family and a host of videographers. With a football tucked in his left arm and a phone in his right hand, Sanders answers Berry's call.

"Hey, I know it's been a long weekend," says Berry, seated at a rectangle boardroom table and flanked by coach Kevin Stefanski and other team staffers in the Browns' dimly lit draft room. "We're going to take you off the board here. Alright, brother?"

"Yes sir, let's do it," Sanders responds with a smile as he paces around the backyard.

"Let's get ready to go to work and prove all the people who passed on you wrong," Berry says later before passing the phone to Stefanski, who smiles as he speaks to Sanders.

The Browns had traded the Seattle Seahawks their 166th and 192nd picks to move up and select Sanders, a record-setting quarterback at the University of Colorado and the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, in the fifth round, marking the culmination of one of the most highly scrutinized draft cycles for a prospect in recent memory. It began in January with Sanders projected as a possible top pick and ended with him as the sixth quarterback taken in what many analysts characterized as a weak class for the position.

Though he found an NFL home, questions remain about Sanders' unexpected fall.

The Browns spent extensive time with Sanders during the predraft process, meeting him at the East-West Shrine Bowl and NFL scouting combine, as well as hosting him on a top 30 visit and dining with him ahead of his pro day workout on April 4. Ultimately, their evaluation wasn't that of an elite prospect on their draft board, and they determined he was not worth the No. 2 pick they had held in the lead-up to Day 1. But as teams continued to pass on Sanders into Day 3, Cleveland decided to take a late third-round flier on a prospect Berry believed provided too much value to pass up at that point.

Sanders became the Browns' seventh and final pick in the 2025 draft, and their second quarterback taken, following the selection of Dillon Gabriel -- a former Oregon, Oklahoma and UCF standout -- with the 94th selection.

Sanders arrives in Cleveland with an opportunity to distinguish himself in a remodeled quarterback room that has no clear starter. His competition for playing time includes 40-year-old Joe Flacco, 2022 first-round pick Kenny Pickett, Gabriel and 2024 starter Deshaun Watson, who is expected to be sidelined for a significant portion of the 2025 season because of an Achilles injury.

Despite Sanders being a fifth-round pick, Stefanski said he will get an opportunity to compete to be QB1 for a franchise that used four different passers last season and has started a league-high 40 different quarterbacks since returning to Cleveland in 1999.

"We felt like it got to a point where he was probably mispriced relative to the draft," Berry said Saturday. "Really, the acquisition cost was pretty light, and it's a guy that we think can outproduce his draft slot."

AS THE PREDRAFT process progressed, the chances of the Browns landing University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward, widely regarded as the top quarterback prospect, became increasingly slim.

Throughout the draft cycle, Berry said he was open to doing whatever maximized the value of the second pick which Cleveland held. But as Berry sat at a roundtable surrounded by Cleveland-area reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, in late March, the normally tight-lipped executive revealed that trading up was not a realistic outcome.

"Candidly, I wouldn't necessarily see that as likely," Berry said.

As Tennessee honed in on Ward in the final weeks leading up to the draft, the Browns were deep in trade discussions with the Jacksonville Jaguars on pivoting from the No. 2 slot. Minutes after the draft got started, and Tennessee officially selected Ward, Cleveland sent its pick to the Jaguars for a draft package that included the No. 5 pick and a 2026 first-rounder. The haul gave Cleveland two picks in the first round of the 2026 draft, which is projected to have a stronger quarterback class.

With the No. 5 pick, the Browns selected former Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham, a player Berry called "one of the premier linemen in this draft on either side of the ball." Sanders was again linked to Cleveland as a possible destination as the team held Day 2 picks and two in the first four picks of the second round. But with their final pick of Day 2, the Browns bypassed Sanders again and selected Gabriel at No. 94.

A team source said the Browns believed many teams had a Day 2 grade on Sanders -- another team source described being surprised as Sanders fell into Day 3 -- but acknowledged potential high picks slide to later rounds every year, though not as publicized as his.

The real shock for draft watchers came in the third round with the team's selection of Gabriel over Sanders. Gabriel, a six-year player in college who was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, was viewed as a possible Day 3 option, according to ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr., but he was a player Berry and Stefanski said they coveted after several interactions with him during the draft cycle.

Gabriel was in a group of top prospects the team hosted on top 30 visits in early March. The cohort included Sanders, but Gabriel's inclusion was not reported at the time -- the team website only named Sanders, Penn State edge Abdul Carter and Colorado receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter -- and went under the radar. Cleveland's top decision-makers also traveled to Eugene, Oregon, for a private workout with Gabriel and got an up close look at him during the Senior Bowl, as multiple Cleveland coaches participated in the all-star event. Berry and Stefanski were also in Mobile, Alabama, for the Senior Bowl.

"We really felt strongly about Dillon throughout this process," Berry said Friday night. "You know, I think he's a really strong, really, really good prospect. You know, that's not to say that we didn't meet with other quarterbacks that we thought were really talented players and good people. But we felt strongly about Dillon. We think he's an excellent player and felt like he was the most appropriate player to pick for both."

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Browns GM: We believe Shedeur Sanders will outproduce his draft slot

Browns general manager Andrew Berry explains why Cleveland selected Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round.

WHILE THE BROWNS held Gabriel in high regard, the pick only further underscored Sanders' stunning drop -- and raised more questions about the reasons behind it.

"I think it's unfair for me to comment, I guess, maybe on behalf of the industry," Berry said last week when asked about Sanders. "All I can say is this: The time that we spent with Shedeur and what he's done throughout his college career is impressive. He's an impressive young man. He's a really good quarterback. Sometimes, fit comes into play and I'd also say this, there are four more rounds of the draft. Lastly, it's less about where you get picked, and what you do after you get picked. That's really the most important thing.

"Getting to know him over the course of the spring, he has a ton of resolve, and I think he's going to find himself in a really good spot."

That spot being Cleveland appeared unlikely after the Gabriel pick.

The way Sanders handled his predraft process, including interviews with teams, gained widespread attention, with reports surfacing that his interactions with certain teams did not go smoothly. Word had gotten out among some coaching and front office sources in the league that Sanders struggled with the New York Giants and possibly other teams during predraft visits and meetings.

Sanders accepted his invite to the East-West Shrine Bowl in late January but did not participate, choosing to only meet with teams. He declined to throw at the NFL scouting combine in February, deciding to wait until his pro day workout in Boulder, Colorado, on April 4.

"I did expect him to have a better spring," an AFC area scout told ESPN. "I heard he had some rough interviews, and the pro day was average. Surprised but not shocked [Sanders fell to the fifth round]."

However, one source from another team that was in the quarterback market had heard the Browns' process with Sanders went smoother than it did for others.

"We felt good with him as a person," Berry said Saturday. "He works hard. He's a really good kid. He wants to be great. His teammates loved him in Colorado, and I know he'll come in here ready to work, ready to try and put his best foot forward in all areas of competition."

In a conference call with Cleveland-area reporters after the pick, Sanders acknowledged he could have done some things differently during the predraft process. When asked if he thought his interactions during team interviews played a role in dropping to Day 3, Sanders responded: "I think what happened was I had a great interview and great process with the Browns, and that's why they were able to pick me. So anything outside the organization is really a nonfactor to me now because this is where my focus and this is where my mind is: just doing everything I can to make the team better. So everything outside of that, the opinions don't really matter."

According to one person in the Browns' draft room, there wasn't a spirited discussion Friday night or early Saturday about what to do with Sanders. The team already had accounted for the player, his ranking and everything that comes with drafting a prospect.

After the selection of Sanders, Berry told reporters that there was a thought of targeting Sanders if he continued to fall on Day 3. A source with knowledge of Browns' internal conversations said Berry "worked hard to trade up for him," beginning to make calls late in the fourth round, and called the pick a "no-brainer."

"We felt like it wasn't necessarily the plan going into the weekend to select two quarterbacks," Berry told reporters Saturday. "But as we talk about, we do believe in best player available, we do believe in positional value, and we didn't necessarily expect him to be available in the fifth round. We love adding competition to every position room and adding him to compete with the guys that are already in there. We felt like that was the appropriate thing to do."

Berry was also asked about the role, if any, ownership had in the selection. He shut down any notion that owner Jimmy Haslam, who in the past had gained a reputation of being heavily involved in decisions, forced the pick.

Haslam, who was seated behind Stefanski and looking onward as the room's response to selecting Sanders was captured by live cameras, was a frequent attendee to pro days and visits with top prospects. He was also part of a large contingent of team coaches, execs and ownership who traveled to Colorado's pro day and had dinner with Sanders and Hunter ahead of their workout. The team said ownership meeting with players was normal for prospects viewed as potential cornerstones.

"Jimmy lets us do our jobs," Berry said.

AS SANDERS FIELDED the fateful FaceTime call from Berry, the crowd surrounding him at his home began to cheer. After multiple days of uncertainty, a wide smile emerged from Sanders' face as he fitted a Browns hat with an orange brim and "dawg" logo on his head. Later, Deion Sanders FaceTimed Berry, with whom he built a good relationship throughout the predraft process, according to a source with knowledge of their conversations. He is also familiar with Browns quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave, who was a teammate and good friend of his during their season together with the San Francisco 49ers in 1994.

By Tuesday, Shedeur Sanders had arrived in Ohio. Clips surfaced of him walking through a Browns-themed gym in downtown Cleveland and later running drills up a hill. On Wednesday, he surprised a group of student-athletes at John Marshall High School on the city's west side. He answered questions from the students and later posed for photos and signed items. During his introductory conference call, Sanders spoke of wanting to be involved with the community in his new home.

His NFL career begins in earnest May 9 when the Browns hold a three-day rookie minicamp at their practice facility in Berea, Ohio. Despite all the continued speculation regarding Sanders' fall and eventual landing in Cleveland, he'll soon get a chance to put his disappointing draft slide behind him with a franchise starved for a stable quarterback situation.

"What fuels me is my purpose in life and understanding the route that we're going to have to take," Sanders said. "Understanding that I was able to get an opportunity when a lot of people didn't want to give me an opportunity. So, that's what I'm truly thankful for. That's what fuels me."

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler contributed to this story.