Shedeur Sanders lost the QB1 job at the Cleveland Browns, where many had him as the favorite over Deshaun Watson. The Browns head coach picked Deshaun Watson over Sanders, noting that “Watson gives the team the best chance to move the ball and score points. He says the team is excited about Shedeur Sanders’s future, but ‘this is not a week-to-week decision.”

Monken claims that Watson will move the ball better than Sanders, but former NFL running back LeSean McCoy believes that even if Shedeur had dual-threat skills like Baltimore Ravens‘ Lamar Jackson, he still wouldn’t be picked over Watson.

When Emmanuel Acho threw a hypothetical Shedeur Sanders situation towards McCoy, the NFL legend didn’t shy away from giving his honest opinion. Acho began by asking,

Let me ask you a real question. I don’t think I’ve asked you this before. If Shadore was better, would it still be a question, too? Right? Like, say Shedeur had the talent of Caleb Williams, say Shedeur had the talent of Jayden Daniels, dudes that are instantly electrifying. Say Shedeur had the talent of Lamar Jackson. If Shedeur just jumped off the page, Cam Newton, if Shedeur was 6’5, What do you think?

“I truly think that Deshaun would have got a chance to start first, but I think that the lease should be way shorter,” McCoy said on the Speakeasy Podcast. “You know what I’m saying? Maybe a game and a half. I mean, but the guys you’re talking about are special, special. Like, you can be a good quarterback and not be super special.

“When you first saw Tom Brady play, you didn’t think he was in the category of the Cam [Newton] and all the other dudes when you first saw him, right? But that doesn’t mean he’s not a good quarterback. Shedeur may not be the burner with the speed or the size of Cam. He might not be that. But what we do know is that when he gets a chance to play the quarterback position, he looks well. He looks good.”

LeSean McCoy has won two Super Bowl rings for the 2019 and the 2020 seasons (with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and addressed the question while comparing Shedeur Sanders with Tom Brady and Lamar Jackson with Cam Newton.

Jackson breaks defenses with speed, whereas Newton dominated through size and power. For McCoy, unlike traditional quarterbacks, these two stand as special talents.

Meanwhile, Sanders and Brady are pocket passers who view running as a last resort used only to pick up a vital first down or throw the ball away. But Sanders and Brady share another trait: both were picked in the fifth and sixth rounds.

Many initially doubted Brady’s ability to lead a franchise, and according to LeSean McCoy, the same theory can be likened to Shedeur Sanders losing the QB1 job against Deshaun Watson.

While Sanders is entering his second NFL season, Watson is a veteran with over 17,000 passing yards and 120 touchdowns. So, would the Cleveland Browns have trusted Sanders over Watson? McCoy doesn’t think so.

However, the former NFL running back also believes that having dual-threat skills would have edged Sanders closer to replacing Watson sooner than the timeline they have now if the veteran struggles.