Shedeur Sanders Was Historically Bad In His First NFL Season

When Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round of the NFL Draft, some analysts, observers and Sanders fans were stunned. After a stellar career in Colorado, with 64 touchdowns against just 13 interceptions, along with eight rushing touchdowns in 24 games, some expected Sanders to go as high as the first round.

Others pointed out that there were maturity issues and questions about how his skill set would transfer to the harder level of competition in the NFL. With all the quarterbacks on the Cleveland Browns' roster ahead of Sanders on the depth chart, there was a reasonable possibility he never saw the field in the 2025-2026 regular season. 

Well, a Joe Flacco trade and an injury to Dillon Gabriel opened up an opportunity for Sanders to start the final six games of the regular season. Now that the season is officially over, we can evaluate his performance over that sample size. And spoiler alert, it wasn't just bad, it was historically bad.

Shedeur Sanders of the Cleveland Browns passes the ball against the San Francisco 49ers during the first quarter at Huntington Bank Field on November 30, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

Shedeur Sanders Has Long Way To Go To Become Quality NFL Player

One X user, "ShawnIyer," posted this week about Sanders' performance through his rookie season, as evaluated by ESPN's quarterback rating. With a 12.0 QBR in his final game on Sunday, his average rating was just 18.8. That would be the lowest single-season QBR average for a Browns quarterback with at least six starts in the team's history.

That is…not good. Especially considering the lengthy list of awful Browns quarterbacks. 

But it's not just QBR where Sanders has struggled. Jordan Zirm, a Cleveland sports fan who writes about the city's teams, posted a chart of quarterback efficiency during the 2025 regular season. On the vertical, y-axis is expected points added, essentially a measurement of how much a given play increases a team's chance of scoring or decreases it. On the horizontal x-axis is completion percentage above expected, whether a QB completed more passes than he would be expected to complete adjusted for individual factors on his throws.

Basically, you want your quarterbacks to be at the top right of the chart, meaning they excelled at both increasing their team's expected points and completing a higher percentage of throws than expected.

Sanders is at the very bottom left.

He ranked dead last among NFL quarterbacks on the chart in expected points added, at roughly -0.20 per play. And he was roughly equal to J.J. McCarthy and just ahead of Dillon Gabriel when it comes to completion percentage above expected. The quarterbacks near the top right? Drake Maye, Jordan Love, Sam Darnold, Brock Purdy, Josh Allen. Like a list of the best in the sport who helped lead their teams to the playoffs.

One PFF grade several weeks ago that surfaced for Sanders was a 33. Stats guru Nate Silver posted his own ratings of quarterback performance, which graded out with Maye, Matthew Stafford, Allen and Trevor Lawrence near the top. Of the 78 quarterbacks who played, Sanders ranked 73rd.

That is not good. 

He did have moments of brilliance throughout the season, showing off impressive arm strength and accuracy on deep throws. He also frequently held on to the ball too long, and struggled to read plays and the field. And in fairness, he was thrust into the starting role unexpectedly in the middle of the season. Rookies also tend to improve over time. But Drake Maye's debut average QBR in 2024 was 55.2. Sanders had just an 18.8. 

Sam Darnold is an example of a young player who took time to develop, needing to get out of poorly run organizations to find a system that fit his skill set. Sanders will also have a new head coach for 2026, after Kevin Stefanski was fired. But his performance this year was so bad it might be a priority for a new head coach to find a new quarterback. And the numbers show it'd be hard to argue with that assessment.