Browns owner breaks silence on Shedeur Sanders selection
The AFC North team selected Sanders in the fifth round of the NFL Draft, having also picked Dillon Gabriel in the third.
The Cleveland Browns turned heads during the 2025 NFL Draft by selecting not one, but two quarterbacks - Dillon Gabriel from the Oregon Ducks in the third round, and Shedeur Sanders from the Colorado Buffaloes in the fifth.
The move sparked immediate questions, especially considering the team had already acquired Kenny Pickett in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles and retained veteran Joe Flacco. Now, three months after the draft, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has broken his silence and revealed who made the call to draft Sanders.
“That’s Andrew Berry’s call”
“We had a conversation early that morning [on the third day of the draft] and we had a conversation later that day,” Haslam said. “I think we had the right people involved in the conversation. At the end of the day, that’s Andrew Berry’s call. Andrew made the call to pick Shedeur.”
Berry, now in his fifth season as the Browns’ general manager, helped end the franchise’s 17-year playoff drought in his first year on the job. He’s also been instrumental in retaining cornerstone players like defensive end Myles Garrett and orchestrated the blockbuster trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson.
#Browns Jimmy Haslam stresses that Shedeur Sanders was Andrew Berry’s pick, not his. pic.twitter.com/sD3yQYwSq8
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) July 29, 2025
Who will start at QB in Week 1 for the Browns?
Cleveland opens the regular season on September 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field, but the same question that loomed at the start of training camp remains unanswered: Who will be the Browns’ starting quarterback?
Head coach Kevin Stefanski currently has three healthy options: Sanders, Gabriel and Flacco. Pickett is out indefinitely after suffering an injury during a recent practice.
As of now, Flacco appears to be the frontrunner. The 40-year-old veteran has been a starter in this league and found late-career success with the Browns in 2023. Though he only played in the final five games of that season, he led the team to four wins and earned NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors at age 38.
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