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Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam spoke about the process that resulted in the team drafting Shedeur Sanders in April.
Haslam suggested the team had no intention of drafting Sanders after the controversial quarterback shockingly fell out of third round on April 25. But Haslam said that changed the next day, the final day of the draft, after a conversation among team brass.
“If you had told me Friday night [Day 2 of the NFL Draft], driving home, ‘Y’all are gonna pick Shedeur,’ I would have said, ‘That’s not happening,’” Haslam said Tuesday. “But we had a conversation early that morning [Day 3], and we had a conversation later that day, and we had the right people involved in that conversation.”
Haslam also claims that it was team general manager Andrew Berry who made the decision to draft Sanders.
“At the end of the day, that’s [general manager] Andrew Berry’s call. Andrew made the call to pick Shedeur. Just like who’s gonna start or what play we’re gonna call is [head coach] Kevin [Stefanski]’s call. But that’s Andrew’s call. He made the call.”
Sanders, who was projected by some experts to contend for the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft after last year’s college football season, ended up falling all the way to the 144th pick when Browns finally took him off the board.
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Berry told reporters after the selection that it “wasn’t the plan” to take a second quarterback after Cleveland took Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel with an earlier pick.
“It wasn’t necessarily the plan going into the weekend to select two quarterbacks, but, you know, 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,” Berry said at an April 26 press conference.
“So, we love adding competition to every position room. So, adding him to compete with the other guys who are already in there, that was the appropriate thing to do.”
Sanders’ presence on the Browns has already been marred by controversy after he was twice cited for speeding.
Sanders was first ticketed for going 91 mph in a 65-mph zone. Two weeks later, he went 101 in a 60 and failed to appear in court.
The rookie quarterback addressed those traffic tickets while appearing at teammate David Njoku’s charity softball game last month.
“I made some wrong choices personally, and I can own up to them,” Sanders said. “I made some, you know, not great choices… I learned.”
Berry criticized Sanders for the incidents last week.
“Not smart. Just not smart,” Berry told reporters this week about the tickets. “It’s something that we’ve addressed with him. Look, he understands the implications. He understands the consequences. It’s not just about yourself. It’s not just about having a joyride, but that you could injure other people… A deer or something cuts in front of you, your reaction time, it’s just dangerous.”
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