Shedeur Sanders’ 2025 campaign was not easy on the eyes. He’d been thrust into the fire by the Cleveland Browns after Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel failed. Sanders finished 2025 with more losses than wins, but according to Deion Sanders, Cleveland’s failures were not all his son’s fault.

“I would have him to perform a little better, but that’s not just an individual thing, that’s a team thing,” Coach Prime claimed in an exclusive interview with Covers. “A quarterback needs help tremendously from the offensive line, from the receivers, from the running game, from the coordinators as well.” 

“It’s not just a singular thing, like a defensive back,” Deion continued. “I don’t care what the pass rush is, [the DB] has got to do his job. It’s a little different with a quarterback. He needs several things to go right for him to be successful.” 

Even though Shedeur Sanders was the QB they stuck with, he was not able to impress. Part of this was his own issues with accuracy, ball release, and plain and simple rookie jitters. But the offense around him was far from the mark. Things were already troubling when Sanders was handed the keys.

The QB was given a questionable wide receiver room. Browns Wire’s Jacob Roach outright called this unit as the worst in the league last year, simply because of how inept Sanders’ targets were. Jerry Jeudy managed to catch only 50 out of his 106 targets for 602 yards (44.0% catch percentage, per ESPN Next Gen Stats), and has more drops than touchdowns. Cedric Tillman found himself in a similar position, and he went down with a concussion during the season. The fact that Sanders was able to limit himself to 10 interceptions over eight games is remarkable. 

And Cleveland’s offensive line was pretty much nonexistent. The durability of the O-line was in doubt before Sanders even got to start, because of the many senior players in this unit. And one by one, they started to go down: left tackle Dawand Jones suffered a knee injury, and right tackle Jack Conklin missed time due to two concussions.

Right guard Wyatt Teller missed a couple of games due to a calf injury. His replacement, Teven Jenkins, had to exit with a shoulder injury. Center Ethan Pocic suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in December.

Sanders somehow waded through all that dysfunction to bring three wins as a starter. Per The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin, the Browns ranked last in pass protection last season. It was the same for their run and pass block composite rankings.

Cleveland Browns legend Bernie Kosar stood by Sanders with a similar take as Coach Prime’s during his appearance on The Dawgs – A Cleveland Browns Podcast. Kosar pointed out that quarterbacks are either the “victims or the beneficiaries” of their offense. The Year 2 QB was never given much to fight with.

Deion Sanders’ words come amid an important time for Shedeur, who still hasn’t given up in the ongoing battle for the QB role at Cleveland.

Shedeur Sanders has impressed the coaching staff at the training camps

With Deshaun Watson‘s resurgence, Sanders will likely have to move to the background in the QB room. Per ESPN Cleveland, the latter went 79-for-113 in passing and threw five touchdowns and three interceptions. Watson went 90-for-133, scored 13 touchdowns, and threw three INTs. The veteran is now separating himself as the winner in the Browns’ QB1 battle. But Sanders’ development hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Head coach Todd Monken sees two starting quarterbacks in the QB1 room, which should bode well for Sanders. General manager Andrew Berry said on 92.3 The Fan that the young QB “had an excellent spring” and “did a phenomenal job this offseason.”

Per Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, Sanders “worked overtime” to correct his decision-making and ball release problems. What seemed like a big win for Watson has now become a “tight race” between him and Sanders, thanks to his hard work. The competition is still not over. We’ll have to wait and watch who Monken decides to roll the dice on.

But whoever wins will need an offense that doesn’t become the nightmare it was last season. After all, there’s only so much a quarterback can do.