CLEVELAND, Ohio — Shedeur and Deion Sanders both weighed in Tuesday on the Joe Flacco trade, which could elevate Shedeur to QB2 behind fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel for Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh.
The Browns traded Flacco, 40, to the Bengals on Tuesday along with a 2026 sixth-round pick in exchange for a 2026 fifth-round pick. He’ll likely start Sunday against the Packers in place of Jake Browning, who lost three straight games and threw eight interceptions in his four starts, including three in a loss to the Lions on Sunday.
It means Sanders, the Browns’ fifth-round pick out of Colorado, could be the backup quarterback for the first time this season after serving as the emergency third QB in each of the first five games. The Browns might also contemplate elevating Bailey Zappe, the Patriots’ 2022 fourth-round pick out of Western Kentucky, off the practice squad for backup duty. He’s 4-5 in his career and started the Browns’ 35-10 loss to the Ravens in the 2024 season finale.
“Flacco getting traded, he’s definitely somebody I leaned on for wisdom, and I feel like he helped me a lot,” Sanders told Fox8 News at a car dealership appearance on Tuesday. “He helped me a lot with my time being here in Cleveland, and his time being here in Cleveland, so now everybody has their own destinies and has their own plans they have in life, so I’m just happy for him.”
He noted that he saw Flacco after he learned he had been traded, which came six days after he was benched with a 1-3 record in favor of Gabriel, the Browns’ third-round pick out of Oregon.
“Yeah and then he told me, and I’m like, ‘Dang, that happened quick,’” Sanders said. “Like that was crazy.”
Flacco and Sanders bonded throughout the offseason and training camp, with Sanders trying in vain to get Flacco to do the “schmoney” dance one day on the field.
“Joe’s the old guy in the room, so I joke with Joe all the time every day I see him,” Sanders said then. “I can’t tell you all my jokes, but whenever you see them or they’re mic’d up or anything, all that stuff is real. It’s spur of the moment and then after that, it’s time to lock back in. Our minds are always consistently and constantly moving.”
Sanders’ dad, Deion, was asked about the trade during his press conference Tuesday at Colorado.
“I don’t care,” Sanders told reporters. “I don’t give a darn about the Browns — at all. I care about the Colorado Buffaloes. I do love me some Shedeur Sanders, though, believe that. I care about him. And the rest of that mess, I don’t. I’m a coach trying to win games just like they’re trying to win games. I could care less who they traded.”
During an appearance on the Kelce Brothers “New Heights” podcast two weeks ago, Deion said NFL teams don’t develop and teach players.
“I’ve never sat on the bench and said, ‘Well, I learned a lot today,’” Deion said. “Who learns sitting on the bench? Who does that?”
Deion’s advice to Shedeur, whom he coached from Pop Warner through Colorado in 2024, has been “be patient and be ready. I don’t want you … they call your name and you ain’t ready. We ain’t built like that. The Sanders, we ain’t built like that. We’re always ready. We don’t have to get ready. And I want you to be patient. You don’t force nothing today that it may not be time.”
He also told Shedeur, “… but when it’s time, you’re gonna know. I said it’s coming up. You know, I’ve got a prediction, I ain’t telling anybody. I got a feeling when it’s gonna go down, but it’s gonna go down, all right? It’s going to happen. He’s going to get a shot.”
Deion also revealed Tuesday he was undergoing another procedure, an aspiration thrombectomy, to remove blood clots from his popliteal and tibial arteries.
“I’m going to be all right,” he said as the Buffaloes prepare to hold Iowa State on Saturday. “Prayerfully, I’ll be right back tomorrow because I don’t miss practice. I don’t plan on doing such.”
Deion suffered from blood clots in 2021 while he was at Jackson State, with two toes on his left foot being amputated. He also had a blood clot removed from his right leg in 2023, and another procedure on his left foot.
Sanders, 58, also recovered over the summer from a long bout with bladder cancer that kept him away from the team. Doctors used a section of his intestine to construct a makeshift bladder. He spared Shedeur and his son Shilo the details while they were in camp with their new NFL teams, including Shilo with the Bucs before he got cut.
“I trust God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind,” Sanders said Tuesday. “I’m going to go in there (surgery), and I’m going to get some of the best sleep in the world for, I think, four hours, the surgery is going to be. “I’ve never been high a day in my life. I’ve never drank, smoked or anything. But when I get those surgeries, I am there on time.”
Deion might not care at all about the Browns right now because he’s got more pressing issues on his plate.
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