Shedeur Sanders continues to be under the media’s and fans’ scrutiny in his second season. According to former All-Pro and Super Bowl-winning running back LeSean McCoy, the Browns QB’s draft-day slide has altered the young quarterback’s NFL mindset. 

“I think if he was the first-round quarterback, his confidence [would’ve] been even better, even bigger,” McCoy said on Speakeasy. “Being a fifth-round pick and doing your first-round, your confidence ain’t the same. And talking to him, I can tell a little difference. 

“As a player, your confidence is everything. I know from being a rookie Shady to now, I’m me. That’s way different. So, I do think if Shedeur was the first-rounder, it would be different on the conference and how the team and the GM treat me. When you feel like you’ve been there, they treat you like you don’t even count. It’s like, ‘I don’t even belong here.’ I think he’d be a different story if he was first round.”

There have been players in the NFL who made a mark as rookies, even though they were selected in the lower rounds of the draft. Tom Brady and Brock Purdy were both drafted much lower than Sanders. Kurt Warner went undrafted before he became a Hall of Famer. But Sanders is a different case entirely.

A bad media narrative was a huge factor in his slip to the fifth round. But even after that, Sanders could not secure a higher spot on the depth chart because it already had better quarterbacks: Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel. He had the chance to dethrone Gabriel, but couldn’t.

Gabriel, who was an absolute standout for the Oregon Ducks, was drafted in the third round. In the days leading up to the draft, his film outshone Sanders by miles. The “outsider” narrative continued to build.

However, it was only after Gabriel struggled as a rookie that Sanders surprisingly led the Browns throughout the rest of the season. Through the eight games Sanders played (seven starts), he completed 56.6% of his passes for 1,400 yards and scored seven touchdowns.

Sanders, for the second time in his career, is headed for a backup role, with Deshaun Watson leading the charge in the battle for the starting job. With Watson healthy entering the season, the expectation all offseason has been that QB2 is the best Sanders can realistically hope for. And if he fails to get more playing time, he might truly become the outsider everyone has already made him to be.