QB Shedeur Sanders (6.10.25)

How do you feel like you’ve played so far?

“I know every day is room for improvement in a lot of different areas in my game. So, I never feel…I’ll say full. I would say I’m always hungry. And there’s a lot of aspects in football that you could get better at. It’s weight room, it’s knowing the plays. It’s physically, it’s throwing different. You can always get precise on more things. So, I feel like I put in my day’s work, but I know I’m far from where I want to be.”

 

When you first walked in the door right before rookie minicamp there to where you are now. Where do you think you have grown the most? 

“I’d say spiritually. That’s why I say I’ve grown the most. After Draft, you know, getting closer to God and definitely talking to him consistently, having a real relationship with him. That’s where I’ll say I’ve grown the most.”

 

Just the conversations with Joe (Flacco), with Kenny (Pickett), even with Dillon (Gabriel), just how valuable are those for you and how much do you just – are you able to just learn from just talking through things, whether it’s a play or any part of this job?

“It’s real fun having those guys in the room, though, because we all are quarterbacks, we all feel, you know, similar ways, but nobody, you know, always talks about it. So, Joe’s the old guy in the room, so I joke with Joe all the time, every day I see him. And Kenny, he had his experiences throughout his career overall. So, then we just share a lot of the same things. And Dillon, of course, we’re the same age group. You know, those guys are older, so me and Dillon, we’re the same age group, so we just talk about experiences, you know, just in college and everything so far. “

 

What kind of jokes do you crack with Joe? It seems like you got him to smile a couple times out there during practice. 

“Yeah, I mean, I can’t, I can’t tell them all my jokes now. I can’t tell y’all my jokes, but, like, whenever. Whenever you see them or they’re mic’d up or anything like that, all that stuff is real. That’s real questions. But I don’t know, because it be a spur in a moment, you know, and then like after that, then, okay, it’s time to lock back in. Like, our minds are always consistently and constantly moving. So, I honestly don’t even remember what we’re talking about on the field, honestly.”

 

And on that note of locking in, it seems like right as y’ all were going over to the sideline for film review. Joe was giving you some pretty detailed advice on something. What was he walking you through? Do you remember? 

“Just how to get through the reads quicker and those type of things. And I asked him, ‘Hey, let me know what you think, like, what I need to do.’ So it’s like, he’s seen it, he’s played it, and like he’s a pro, you know, so it’s like, I’ll be dumb. I’ll be a fool to not get insight for somebody that had success over all the years that he had.”

 

Hey, Shedeur. Coach (Kevin) Stefanski said that not many college quarterbacks run play action from under center anymore. What kind of challenge has that been? Because it’s a big staple of his offense. 

“Well, it was good that I grown up in little league and all that stuff under center. So, it bring me back to the little league days. So, I got a good foundation, and now I definitely am going to improve on that. But I have a good, solid foundation and just prep for pro day and all that different type of stuff, really made me more comfortable with everything. Everything in life in any aspect is going to be a challenge. So it’s just, are you going to be the one to overcome the challenge or are you going to let that challenge get you? So that’s how I attack it, and I just want to always look most professional as possible.”

 

Hey, Shedeur, you mentioned this is one of, if not the first time that you’ve been in the back of the line for reps. How are you managing that part of the challenge? 

“I’m managing it real well. Yeah. Overall, it’s a mentality. It’s mental. A lot of people in certain situations in their own life know that may not be at the forefront that maybe had that at one point in time, but you got to know it’s going to be bright days eventually, whenever the time comes. So, you just always got to be prepared and you got to mentally take it as just experience. You know, for anything in life, you got to go through different things so you can understand the message that, you know, God’s trying to give you. So that’s why everything I’m way more grateful for, just to come out here, to be able to throw the ball around and just be able to get on the field. Like everything off the field, it is what it is. But everybody knows when it’s time to get on that grass, then you know who I am.”

 

Shedeur, for this first off-season workout program and your first training camp, there’s always obviously a lot of talk about, like, well, can you be the starter as a fifth-round pick? Like, will you make the team? Like, what is your goal when we get to, you know, September and the games are really getting played?

“My goal is to be the best teammate and to be as polished as I can be. So, in every aspect, I view things as I got time. I got time to be able to grow and mature, you know, and be able to understand the ins and outs of the defenses and be able to get the good insight from the vets in the room. So, I look at it as, you know, a plus. Like, I got time to actually be able to really have a great understanding. And whenever, you know, it’s time for me to play, then it’s time for me to play. But I’m not looking too far in the future about all that. I’m looking about every day in practice because I had some misses out there today that, you know, we got to go in there and correct, reads getting in and out drops a little bit faster from under center. So that’s the main thing. I’m focused on the small things, and over time, the big things will happen.”

 

Shedeur, you mentioned your spiritual growth when you first started. What made that happen now? 

“Well, I wouldn’t say now.  I always know when God’s talking to me. Like last night, if any of y’all see, I tweeted. I tweeted something because, you know, when you sleep, you’re most vulnerable. So, then that’s when I got, like, real bad. You know, I got – God talked to me in that time. And I’m able to recognize that because before pro day, it was the same thing. So that’s how I know I’m on track. You know, that’s how I know I’m living in my purpose. And I understand everything happened for a reason. So I just got a message like, that night, and I had to sleep with my flashlight on last night. I slept with my flashlight on last night because I was too scared.”

 

Shedeur, to go back to the reps and maximizing the reps you’re getting. And you talked about a lot of the work you do inside building, too. Just how do you. How do you think you’re handling that and maximizing the chances are given out here by also doing work inside and after practice and things like that? 

“Well, that’s no different than what – that’s normal than what we grew up Doing and what we’ve been doing at Colorado and Jackson (State). So, I just feel like I’m back in my element. You know, it’s grass. It’s fresh grass. You hear the birds outside. You understand what peace is at this point in life. So, you know, I’m back in my element. I’m excited to be here.”

 

Aer you comfortable? Do you, like, do you feel more comfortable here?

“Do I look more comfortable? I look more comfortable, huh [laughs]? So, yeah, of course I feel more comfortable here. I would say it’s just a mindset, this adjustment. You got to go and understand the situation that you’re in and be able to approach that and get the best out of it. So, life is just based on how you view different things. So, you could view things as you’re not getting reps in a negative way, or you could view it as, okay, when is my time to get out there? Let’s be proactive and let’s get warm, let’s get going. So, there’s no excuses because when you get out there, nobody cares how many reps you got whenever you get in the game, nobody cares if you took a snap before. You know, they care about – everybody cares about production. So that’s the main thing. When you get out there, you got to be able to produce.”

 

Talking to Joe Flacco about going through the reads quickly and, like, how important do you think that is? 

“Well, I talked to Shilo (Sanders), too. Shilo always be telling me about that.”

 

So how important do you think that. And just playing on time, getting rid of it quickly. Like, how important is that aspect of your game to transition into the NFL? 

“Well, I think it’s extremely important. I took a lot of sacks in college, so I know how that feels on your body, I’ll say. So, it’s definitely going through the progressions and getting comfortable and knowing the ins and outs of everything. So, when you go on the field, I already have a different type of confidence by myself, regardless. But now when you go out there and you know the ins and outs and everything, then it’s a whole different type of confidence, you know, you go out there with. So, I’m definitely getting to that point. I would say by the time I say training camp come, then you know, I’ll be there.”

 

Do you work with anybody in the break between now and training camp? In particular, anybody different that you haven’t worked out with people before, whether it be a quarterback trainer and I know you have done that, but will you also maybe get together with any of these quarterbacks or any of these receivers? 

“Well, yeah, right now I gotta focus on this walk through that’s about to be later on. And then I got practice tomorrow, so I can’t mentally – I gotta focus on one thing at a time. I can’t think about what I’m gonna do for the break, where I’m gonna be at, you know, so I gotta be where my feet are. So, I’m here right now and I just gotta focus on coming out tomorrow, having a strong day and walk throughs, understanding the ins and outs.”

 

Shedeur, you mentioned God talking to you. What does that look like or feel like to you or where were you? Take us through what that was like. 

“When?”

 

Last night you said.

“You said I was in my hotel room. Yeah, I was in my hotel room. I just. I was just talking to a couple pastors yesterday, you know, just about my purpose, just about everything here. And it’s a lot of going on, I’ll say in my mind. And I understand, you know, what peace is. So that’s why – break, I know I’m going home one time. I know I’m going home so I can just little things in life, like just feeling the wind, hearing the birds, all that different type of stuff. It’s something that you value now. It’s something I value. So that was the main thing, hearing what he was saying and understanding the message of what it is that he was telling me yesterday.”

 

When you talk about staying prepared for those reps that you do get, how do you think you’ve done taking advantage of them? When we’re out here, it seems like you had some success throwing the ball. Do you feel like you’re taking advantage of those opportunities? 

“Yeah, for sure. But every time the ball hit the ground, I feel a little bit of unsuccess.  So, you know, I don’t really feel…I don’t really feel great whenever I know it’s a completion on the field and I don’t get to it. So that’s what I’m hard on myself about. And that’s what I want to make sure. I always improve every day. And, you know, in football is always going to be good and bad. So, you just clean up the bad stuff one. One day at a time. And after practice, I work on throws, you know, that I missed or things like that. And mentally later on, go through the film and everything so then you could come out tomorrow and be prepared and learn from that one mistake.”

 

Have you done any virtual reality here yet? 

“Yes, sir.”

 

What’s that like? 

“It’s cool.”

 

You think you benefit from it? 

“Yeah, I can’t say yes or no because I got to spend more time on task with it. You know, everybody learns different. I’m more of like an active learner, so I like seeing. I like pictures, being able to walk through, like, real life type stuff. So, I like it. I like it.”

 

I heard your dad mention on a recent podcast that, you know, he’s still kind of going through his health challenge. 

“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m here not to talk about pops and them. I’m here for the quarterback of the Cleveland Browns.”

 

Yeah, I just. My question was, though, if you don’t mind answering this, do you kind of have to just, like you said, be where your feet are and not – I’m sure that’s something that would be a worry to you if you let yourself kind of think about it here. So, is that something that you’re trying to just deal with?

“I’m focused. I’m focused on learning this playbook and everything I gotta do to be the most successful quarterback I could be and be the best teammate I could be. Outside of that, I don’t really have no thoughts or, you know, really opinions on anything outside this game.”

 

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