Shedeur Sanders’ NFL story keeps twisting before his first real snap. The Browns traded up to draft him in the fifth round as pick 144. And to be fair, the 9 TDs for just 1 pick in his minicamp have shown that he’s got what wowed many to rate him so highly. However, it’s the off-field noise, two speeding tickets in the last month, and a packed QB room that leave his roster spot uncertain. The NFL doesn’t care about highlights if the red flags keep piling up.

That’s what Mark Schlereth pointed out on his The Stinkin’ Truth Podcast when breaking down Shedeur Sanders’ rocky start in Cleveland. “I get it. Like, it’s like to me you just failed another intelligence test [Shedeur’s speeding tickets],” Schlereth said, zeroing in on Sanders’ fifth-round draft status. “By the way, I don’t know if you know this, but they took a guy in the third round who plays quarterback before they took you.”

The criticism didn’t stop there. Schlereth ripped into Sanders’ self-branded “Legendary” draft party, saying, “Nobody’s ever called you legendary except yourself. That’s a major taboo. Right? That in and of itself is kind of douchy. There’s all these reports that you didn’t act very professional… One team put in mistakes in the game plan stuff, and you didn’t catch them. They assumed you didn’t even look.”

What Mark mentioned wasn’t something he made up on his podcast. In May, USA Today revealed that a Browns’ executive, who actually graded Shedeur Sanders as a first-round talent, said the team had no formal interaction with Sanders during the draft process. The reason? They didn’t want to allocate resources to evaluate a quarterback they projected as a starter when they were only in the market for a backup.

This was despite the fact that they heard reports from the NFL Combine, where an assistant coach from another team called Sanders “arrogant” and described the interaction as the worst interview he’d ever had. But maybe it was the Haslam-push as we all know, that played the part. Nonetheless he was in Berea with all the headlines on his back. So, he had to be careful with his moves. Alas, he wasn’t. Reckless is the word many would describe it as, bar Schlereth, who thinks Shedeur has failed yet again.

Sanders’ response to the backlash was a casual, “Made mistakes, I got to learn” at a charity softball game, which Schlereth called “fairly cavalier.” “Dude, do you understand they don’t want to have press conferences about this?” he fired back. The timing couldn’t be worse. Especially when he’s fighting for spot against Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and Dillon Gabriel. The Browns say he’s “taking care of the tickets.” But Schlereth’s message is clear: talent won’t save you if the off-field habits don’t change.

The wake-up call Shedeur Sanders can’t ignore

Mark Schlereth knows what it takes to survive as a late-round pick. He was a 10th-round selection who clawed his way into a 12-year NFL career. So, when the three-time Super Bowl champ speaks about Shedeur Sanders’ rocky start in Cleveland, it comes from hard-earned experience. “You’re a fifth-round pick. But if you can play, it’ll all go away,” Schlereth said on The Stinkin’ Truth Podcast, before dropping the hammer, “When you’re a late-round pick, you got to do everything in your power to get an opportunity. And if you’re Shedeur right now, and it’s close between you and Dillon Gabriel? One guy has acted like a professional; the other guy hasn’t.”

The warning cuts deeper when you remember Schlereth’s path, “I was front and center at Bible study. Did it help me make the team? No. But you better believe I used every edge I could get.” Now, watching Sanders, he just laid it out for the rookie in the brutally honest way, “Eventually the franchise just goes, ‘Listen man, it ain’t worth… the juice ain’t worth the squeeze.’”

For Sanders, the math is with him. The betting odds give him +175 chance to be the QB1. Compare that to Joe Flacco’s, it’s buried behind at +1500. His cannon arm might buy him time, but as Schlereth put it, “You need to understand your lot in life.” The Browns didn’t draft a golden child. They have taken a project on their hands. But if Shedeur doesn’t give them the space to work with, it might get worse than the draft slide.

Maybe this is the reality check Sanders needs. Or maybe, as those speeding tickets suggest, he’s still not slowing down enough to hear the warning signs. The NFL has seen its share of talented players who figured it out, and just as many who never did. Shedeur wouldn’t go down the latter path, not after the GOATED advice from Tom Brady. “He’s gotta show up every day. As a quarterback you have to be a leader,” he said. For his own sake, Shedeur must tread on this path of leadership.