With the Cleveland Browns sending Joe Flacco to Cincinnati soon after benching him in favor of rookie Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders has become the team’s new backup quarterback. This effectively means that he’s one step away from the starting job.
It’s no secret that he’s more than confident that he would be the ideal starting quarterback for the team. However, this level of confidence is not seen as a positive by everyone in the world of football. This is, in part, what made Shedeur drop all the way down to the fifth round in the 2025 NFL Draft following disastrous interviews during the NFL Combine.
Those criticisms resurfaced last week, when former Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan went on ESPN’s Get Up and called out the quarterback for talking highly about his own abilities. Shedeur Sanders did not react to the comments until Thursday, when he was asked by the press what he thought of Ryan calling him an “embarrassment.”
“We not on no negativity from now on,” Sanders said. “We not doing that. I’m just here to be positive and I don’t speak on anything negative. That’s the new way, that’s what we going forward with. Anything negative, we not talking about it, we not speaking on it.”
“We not on no negativity from now on,” – Browns QB Shedeur Sanders on Rex Ryan’s comments. pic.twitter.com/1kezUo10EY
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) October 9, 2025
What Did Rex Ryan Say About Shedeur Sanders?
On ESPN’s Get Up, Rex Ryan spoke about Shedeur Sanders’s character, saying he spent too much time talking about his own abilities and not enough time getting down to do the work.
“This kid talks and he runs his mouth,” Ryan said on ESPN’s Get Up. “Like he said, ‘I can be a starting quarterback’ with his arms crossed like this. Get your ass in the front row and study and do all that. If I know, the whole league knows. Quit being an embarrassment that way. You’ve got the talent to be the quarterback; you should be. You should be embarrassed that you’re not the quarterback now.”
Regardless, Shedeur Sanders is now the backup for the Cleveland Browns, and if Dillon Gabriel fails to stick as a starter, he will likely get his chance in the NFL. Only time will tell.
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