The scene inside the Browns' draft room after selecting QB Shedeur Sanders.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is an analyst of the Cleveland Browns for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Takeaways from Day 3 of Browns draft …
The Browns saved the worst for last.
A third Andrew Berry bombshell in three days of the draft left everyone dazed and confused about a quarterback room resembling the Land of Misfit Toys.
Seemingly outdoing their long history of controversial quarterback decisions under the Jimmy Haslam ownership, the Browns traded up in the fifth round on Saturday and selected Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, rescuing the lightning rod of the entire draft season from a humiliating, historic free-fall.
It left the Browns with an absolutely bizarre quarterback mix of Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, Sanders and – lest we forget – Deshaun Watson.
Ultimately, the Browns began the draft by trading AWAY Travis Hunter, the consensus best player in the draft, and ended it by trading FOR Sanders, who was passed over by 32 teams for 4 1/2 rounds and 143 selections.
“I guess I never really thought of it that way until you mentioned it,” Berry said, seemingly exhausted by the weekend’s twists and turns.
In between, the Browns drafted Gabriel, an under-sized (5-11) and over-aged (turns 25 in December) quarterback in the third round, ignoring higher-ranked players to fill needs at safety and wide receiver.
Here was Berry’s official corporate explanation:
“We talk oftentimes about quarterback being the most important position in the sport. We obviously spent a lot of time with Shedeur throughout the process. He’s highly accurate, can play well from the pocket, [had a] very productive college career.
“It wasn’t necessarily the plan going into the weekend to select two quarterbacks but we do believe in best player available, we do believe in positional value, and we didn’t necessarily expect him to be available in the fifth round. We love adding competition to every position room and adding him to compete with the guys that are already in there … we felt that was the appropriate thing to do.
The Browns swapped their final two picks in the draft – Nos. 166 and 192 overall – to the Seahawks to move up 22 notches to take Sanders at No. 144.
When a network camera showed the Browns’ draft room after the Browns made their pick of Sanders, there was subdued clapping from guests in the background and looks of bewilderment on the faces of Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski. Haslam was seen sitting behind Stefanski with a non-plussed expression on his face.
“I think we’re probably just tired from the weekend,” Berry said with a chuckle.
“Those clips, it’s not timed up to exactly the right time,” Stefanski said. “I wouldn’t read too much into it.”
Sanders’ stunning free-fall polarized and angered TV analysts who ranked him first or second among the draft’s quarterbacks. Sanders was the sixth quarterback taken among the 14 drafted overall.
From the very outset of their first interaction with Sanders and his famous dad, Deion, aka Coach Prime, the Browns talked of Sanders’ impressive character and highlighted his attributes as a "retro", pocket quarterback.
But they obviously had him rated below Gabriel, whom they selected 50 spots earlier on Friday.
And given Haslam’s past involvement with the drafting of Johnny Manziel and Baker Mayfield, and his role in the franchise-altering trade for and epic contract given to Watson, Berry was asked if Haslam encouraged the move to bring aboard Sanders, who has been a popular QB choice with Browns fans during the long draft season.
“Jimmy lets us do our jobs. Yeah, Jimmy lets us do our jobs,” Berry said.
Sanders has been slammed by anonymous “sources” for exhibiting a bad attitude in some team interviews and for reacting bad to criticism. Prime has attributed the “hate” to Shedeur simply being Deion’s son. Throughout this draft process, however, Shedeur has maintained a positive attitude and refrained from engaging in a war of words.
In fact, he showed maturity in restraining a reaction to a mean prank made by a college-aged student, who posed as New Orleans GM Mickey Loomis telling Sanders over the phone that the Saints were about to select him. And then the prankster said, “You're gonna have to wait a little bit longer, man. Sorry about that" before hanging up. The prank was videotaped and posted on social media.
“People are morons,” Stefanski railed. “It’s sad that these young men have to deal with this. That happened a lot in the green room in Green Bay, guys were getting calls. So it’s silly, but onward and upward.”
On a conference call, Sanders said, “It didn’t really have an impact on me because … I don’t feed into negativity or I don’t feed into that stuff. You’ve seen on Deion [Sanders] Junior’s YouTube video. My reaction to it, I don’t ... it is what it is. Of course, I feel like it was a childish act, but everybody does childish things here and there.”
The presence of Sanders and his celebrity status will add a circus-like atmosphere to Browns’ camp at a time the organization was intending to turn the page on the painful Watson era.
It also will complicate Stefanski’s task in conducting a quarterback competition involving, now, three new players and Flacco, who returns after a one-year stint in Indianapolis.
“Shedeur has kind of grown up in the spotlight,” Berry said, “but our expectation is for him to come in here and work and compete. Nothing’s been promised. Nothing will be given. So, I may hesitate to characterize it as a blockbuster. That’s not necessarily how we thought of the transaction, but we are excited to work with him.”
Stefanski added, “Our guys understand when you’re in the building, we’re here to work. We don’t pay much attention to what’s on the outside. We know we’ve spent a lot of time with Shedeur. We know what he’s about. He’s coming in here to work just like all of our other players.”
The Browns preceded the bombshell trade for Sanders by drafting Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson in the fourth round. He now joins Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins in a refurbished running back room, further clouding a possible return of Nick Chubb.
After making the controversial trade of the rights to Hunter for future assets and using their first two picks on Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham and UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger, Berry made five straight selections to address offense, including Bowling Green tight end Harold Fannin.
And the last pick of them all, Sanders, completed truly one of the most insane draft weekends in Browns history.
An hour later, the boring Steelers selected Ohio State quarterback Will Howard in the sixth round, No. 185 overall.