Through five weeks, at least, there has been relative peace on a battlefront that raged for much of last season for the Cleveland Browns. That was because for the first 10 weeks of the season, the team flubbed and foibled its way to a 2-8 record, before finally giving Shedeur Sanders a chance to be the team’s starter. Sanders has a vocal and ardent set of backers who not only see him as an NFL-quality starter but paint him as a star of the highest magnitude, and add an element of him being a sort of freedom fighter against the oppression of a league entirely biased against him.
The Browns and their media personalities have been somewhat shielded from all that this season because Deshaun Watson played well enough in getting Cleveland through the first five games of the season at 3-2, leaving the Sanders crowd muted.
But this week a news nugget hit that has pushed Sanders to the fore all over again: He has hired an agent.
Browns Send Shedeur Sanders … to the Broncos?
The presumption is that the only reason Sanders, who is in the second of a four-year rookie deal, would hire an agent is because he wants to seek a trade away from the Browns. If the team is committed to Watson for this season, and drafts a quarterback in 2027, there’s not much wiggle room for Sanders to play.
In the wake of that, trade proposal machines everywhere were sparked into action. Never mind that all 32 teams in the NFL passed on Sanders in the draft multiple times a year ago, quite suddenly, we are to believe that there is a big market for Sanders around the league. CBS Sports, in fact, found five landing spots for Sanders.
And one actually made a good deal of sense: The Browns sending Sanders back to Colorado where he could be the backup to Bo Nix for the Broncos, and where coach Sean Payton has previously said he is a fan of Sanders.
Writes John Breech of the site: “Broncos. A trade to the Broncos would send Shedeur Sanders back to Colorado, where he spent the final two years of his college career while playing for his dad, Deion Sanders. The Broncos obviously have Bo Nix, but things get a little dicey after that. Jarrett Stidham is the backup QB in Denver and the Broncos also have Sam Ehlinger, but Sean Payton might be willing to make a move for a new backup. Payton actually has a relationship with Shedeur and his family that dates back more than a decade.”
Browns Trade Pitch Would Send Shedeur Sanders Back to Familiar Spot