Deion Sanders backs Shedeur as Browns QB1 battle looms

Deion Sanders says Shedeur Sanders has faced the odds for years and is “undervalued,” as the Cleveland Browns weigh a quarterback competition between Shedeur and Deshaun Watson following Watson’s torn Achilles and Myles Garrett’s departure.

Deion Sanders is used to the spotlight—used to it cutting, too. The 58-year-old Hall of Fame cornerback has spent the past three seasons coaching the Colorado Buffaloes. steering a program that had struggled for years into a winner. The change was obvious by 2024: Colorado finished 9-4. reached a bowl game. and marked its first winning season and bowl appearance since 2016.

Now Sanders’ attention is split again. This time, it’s on his son, Shedeur Sanders—at the center of another kind of scrutiny, one that follows every move a high-profile quarterback makes.

In the 2024 NFL draft story, the drop became its own headline. Shedeur was projected as a first-round pick—if not one of the very top selections—before falling all the way to the fifth round to the Cleveland Browns. When the 2025 season opened, he entered as the Browns’ third quarterback behind Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel. But the situation shifted, and Shedeur eventually earned the starting job and finished the year as the starter.

His stat line came with sharp edges: seven touchdowns against 10 interceptions, and a 3-4 record as the starting quarterback.

Sanders doesn’t try to sugarcoat what that kind of production invites from fans and critics. He also doesn’t hide what he believes is happening behind it.

“Well, of course, I’m his dad,” Sanders said. “No, I haven’t spoken to him (said Sanders, sarcastically). I’m just dad. Of course, man. He’s gonna face haters like he’s always had. He’s not gonna face anything new that he hasn’t faced in the entirety of his life. He’s always been up against the eight ball. He’s always been really undervalued, not really appreciated like he should, and he always comes through. He likes when odds are stacked up against him.”.

It’s a guarantee rooted in experience as much as belief—because Sanders frames Shedeur’s road as something longer than a single season.

Even with the numbers that didn’t look perfect, Sanders points to the reality of the job. Shedeur took over a team that, at the moment he started, was 2-8 on the year. The Browns finished 3-9 in 2025, a stretch that followed Colorado’s turnaround and added its own pressure in the NFL.

This offseason, that pressure has a specific opponent.

At 24. Shedeur is now in a quarterback competition with Deshaun Watson. the Browns’ starting quarterback before Watson suffered a torn Achilles injury. The competition carries extra weight because Cleveland made a major roster decision: the Browns traded reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett. In a league where expectations are tied to the moves you make. that kind of change often reshapes how quickly people demand answers from the offense.

Sanders is blunt about the challenge he thinks Shedeur is facing again—and equally blunt about what it would mean if he wins.

The idea is straightforward. If Shedeur can cement himself as the full-time starter by winning the job over Watson, Sanders believes it could unlock “tremendous strides” from the young quarterback in his second season.

While that NFL storyline develops, Sanders hasn’t stepped away from the cause he brought into the offseason spotlight.

He partnered once again with Depend for Men’s Health Month to launch the “Prime Wake Up Call” campaign. encouraging men to stop delaying health screenings for early detection with bladder cancer. Sanders said he dealt with invasive bladder cancer last year and that surgery removed any threat of cancer.

“It’s Men’s Health Month, we gotta take action, man,” Sanders said. “Early detection really saved my life tremendously. But we gotta take action as men to to make sure we get in there and get detected. We sometimes shy away from going to the doctors. laying on the table. and getting done what we need done. because we’re men. where the bravado ends up in us. and we don’t understand. Lay your butt down and get you a check up to make sure we’re straight. Thank God I was going in there for something else, and the detection helped me out tremendously, saved my life.”.

He said the partnership reaches beyond his own family, adding that he meets people who have gone through bladder cancer and are living with its uncertainty.

“Not only people close to me, I mean people all over,” Sanders said. “We just did Good Morning America and one guy was on the set. He said he was just diagnosed not too long ago. and thank God someone is out there speaking out and sounding the trumpets and making sure men feel a bit of normalcy when it comes to that. Because this happens every day. There’s a multitude of diagnoses every day, and it’s not a life sentence. You can deal with it, you can overcome it, and all that adversity.”.

That effort is also personal in another way: Sanders is on the cover of the Depend Real Fit Packaging for the first time.

“I’m happy about that, I’m elated about that,” Sanders said about being on the cover. “It’s a little bragging rights between me and my kids. We talk junk, and I talk all the time, ‘Go to Walmart and see your daddy.’ Stuff like that. I like that. My mom is tremendously elated because she uses the product as well as certain family members. so I’m happy about it.”.

For Sanders, the through line is timing and belief—whether it’s medical intervention or a quarterback grabbing hold of a job.

With Watson working back from a torn Achilles and Cleveland reshaping the roster after trading Myles Garrett. the Browns’ quarterback battle doesn’t just decide who starts. It decides how quickly the season begins to feel like the right one—especially for a quarterback who Deion Sanders insists has always been fighting the wrong narrative.

Deion Sanders Shedeur Sanders Cleveland Browns Deshaun Watson Myles Garrett Joe Flacco Dillon Gabriel NFL quarterback competition Colorado Buffaloes bladder cancer Depend Prime Wake Up Call