The Browns have four quarterbacks on the active roster, and a fifth on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
The curveball came in round five of the draft, when Cleveland added rookie Shedeur Sanders with the 144th overall pick. Just two rounds after the Browns selected quarterback Dillon Gabriel in round three.
Some believe that owner Jimmy Haslam forced the issue, given the perception (or reality) that he has engineered other big-swing quarterback moves, from Johnny Manziel in 2014 to Deshaun Watson in 2022, while maintaining plausible (or implausible) deniability.
Meeting with reporters on Tuesday, Haslam was asked about the theory that Haslam made the call on Shedeur.
“We have good process,” Haslam said, via Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN.com. “We had a conversation early that morning and then we had a conversation later that day. I think we had the right people involved in the conversation. And the end of the day, that’s [G.M.] Andrew Berry’s call. Andrew made the call to pick Shedeur.”
Haslam’s answer makes it clear that the organization considered the possibility that Sanders would be available at a round that would make taking him a bargain they couldn’t refuse. During those conversations, Haslam surely said something. Whatever he said, and didn’t say, would become evidence for Berry’s eventual assessment as to whether the owner was, or wasn’t, on board with it.
If Haslam had said, for instance, “We already drafted a quarterback; we don’t need another one,” would Berry have picked Sanders? Probably not. If Haslam had said, “You can’t have enough good quarterbacks,” would that have influenced Berry?
Owners who truly delegate the decision to others know how to not put a thumb on the scale without leaving an obvious print. We’ll never know whether Haslam truly kept quiet and allowed Berry to make the decision.
Still, the fact that there were not one but two conversations suggests they had a plan. And while the call was Berry’s, the conversations likely drove the decision.
