Shedeur Sanders’ ongoing tryst with remedying his marred perception and image has just seen a fresh, new wrinkle. Since his unprecedented and quite inexplicable slide in the NFL Draft, the quarterback has been the subject of more discourse than ever. Discourse that has verged on being deafeningly negative and cynical. But as clichéd as it sounds, the real work begins post-draft. Shedeur seems to have onboarded that mantra, and his half-brother, Deion Sanders Jr., is making sure the cynics know about it.

Every update and every bit of video evidence coming out of the Cleveland Browns’ rookie camp suggests Shedeur Sanders is playing well. Who’d have thought it, eh? In a vacuum, the quality of the player was never a question mark. At least relative to his 5th-round draft position, the Browns got the unequivocal best steal from a talent standpoint. But the reason, the one that’s been credibly reported for his fateful slide to 144th overall, was said to be the ancillary stuff that comes with Shedeur and his, at times, eccentric persona. So far through the camp, that persona and any problems it may create have been concealed. If they even exist, that is. Shedeur Sanders is even managing to keep away the single biggest factor that caused him to tumble down the draft hierarchy.

The reason Shedeur Sanders didn’t get drafted in round 1 is alleged to be some poor interviewing in the process. But that’s not the reason he dropped all the way to round 5. That’s because franchises didn’t want to risk bringing in a player who may not be a starter for them. Since he’d be a potential distraction affecting the rest of the roster and the operation. Think Tim Tebow, for context. Nobody wants a superstar in college as their backup QB, since the role doesn’t reciprocate the media circus it’ll bring along. When the Browns selected Shedeur as their 2nd quarterback of that very draft behind Dillon Gabriel, the pecking order was clear. Shedeur Sanders was, at least initially, going to be behind Gabriel on the depth chart. Which opened the door to that aforementioned media circus and distraction. Well, what’s transpiring is anything but. 

X user BuffBoy posted a series of pictures on the platform. They’re all screenshots of Browns players’ IG stories, all of which are in a positive vein for Shedeur Sanders. “Shedeur will be a cancer to the locker room,” read the caption of this X post. Sarcastically, of course. Alluding to that exact rationale around how teams should forego picking him because of his outward persona and the baggage he carries. This post came right off the back of Shedeur Sanders doing well in camp, with clips of him airing the pigskin hitting the airwaves. Deion Sanders Jr. took to his “Well Off Media” platform’s IG handle to repost this initial X post. Bucky Sanders, as he’s also known, accompanied the post with a cheeky caption of his own. 

“But his teammates mess with him,” wrote Bucky Sanders. Given how many of them went out of their way to show Shedeur Sanders love via their own social media activity, he sure has a ground to stand on. They do appear to “mess with” Shedeur and have taken to him. Conceded, rookie camp or OTAs aren’t enough to squash the notion of him being a bad apple in the locker room. But it sure is a step in the right direction towards building back his rep. The approach Shedeur seems to have taken is straightforward, yet the most effective one.

Shedeur Sanders himself controls the conversation around him

As hollow and binary as it is, playing well solves everything. Shedeur Sanders locking in during camp and proving both his mettle and his skill will inadvertently make the muddled conversations around him quell very quickly. Not just outside the facility, but inside as well.

The Browns are yearning for some good quarterback play. Stuck in a division with 2 of the best signal callers in the sport, in tandem with the salary cap situation they’re in due to the guaranteed Deshaun Watson contract, meant Cleveland really needed to hit on a quarterback on the rookie scale. Their only shot at getting back towards being competitive in the AFC North and beyond. In a twisted way, drafting 2 quarterbacks in Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel actually could transpire to be a masterstroke for the Browns. Since they get two bites at the cherry for a relatively low investment in terms of draft capital.

If Shedeur can prove he’s capable of facilitating good quarterbacking, he’d become a locker-room favorite very quickly. It’s not a great position Shedeur Sanders is in, competing with 3 others for the starting spot. But these are the cards he’s been dealt, and it doesn’t appear like he’s folding. Not while Bucky has his back, shielding him from unwarranted hate speech online and elsewhere.