Let 2027 come when 2027 comes: Pushing back against the anyone but Shedeur narrative

Let’s cut through the noise, Dawg Pound. We are officially entering that territory where training camp anxiety breeds absolute delusion. The "Anyone But Shedeur" camp has reached peak hysteria, to the point where folks are actively banging the drum for the front office to burn future draft capital on supplemental draft hopeful Brendan Sorsby. 

Erik Drost, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Worse yet, half the fan base is already looking past the 2026 season, tank-dreaming about a 2027 NFL Draft class that is supposed to feature college football royalty. It is time to wake up. The draft hype engine is lying to you, and the production numbers don't care about a prospect's last name.

The 2027 Mirage: Names vs. Numbers

 After the 2025 NFL failed to live up to the quarterback hype that Carson Beck once garnered and the 2026 QB draft fell flat on its face with disappointing seasons from Manning, Drew Allar, Cade Klubnik and LaNorris Sellers, sports pundits told you that the 2027 draft class is the now ultimate prize.  Arch Manning will lighting it up, just one year later than expected.  LaNorris Sellers will finally play up to the traits.   Dante Moore will make the fine tuning adjustments to his game that will propel him NFL superstardom. 

But have you actually looked at the field? Let’s talk about reality versus expectation.

 Look at what happened when middling quarterbacks handed over the keys to the "next big things" in 2025:

• Texas Two Steps Backward: In 2024, seventh-round draft pick Quinn Ewers had the Longhorns' offense humming, throwing for 3,506 yards, 35 touchdowns, and leading them to the college football playoffs. When Arch Manning took over full-time in 2025? The efficiency declined. The Texas passing game was not better for the change — lower completion percentage, higher turnover-worthy play rate, and fewer explosive plays downfield. Texas was on the outside looking in come playoff time.  For most of the season, Manning looked like a Top 5 pick in name only quarterbacking a squad with top 3 talent in college football.

Metric	Quinn Ewers (2024 Season)	Arch Manning (2025 Season)
Games Played (GP)	14 Games	13 Games
Team Record / Wins	11–3 (.786)	10–3 (.769)
Pass Completions / Att.	293 / 445	248 / 404
Completion Percentage	65.8%	61.4%
Passing Yards	3,472 Yards	3,163 Yards
Passing Touchdowns	31 TDs	26 TDs
Interceptions Thrown	12 INTs	7 INTs
Passer Efficiency Rating	148.98	144.92

•   Diving Ducks: In 2024, late third round draft pick Dillon Gabriel threw for 3,771 yards and 30 touchdowns on an absurd 73.7% completion clip. Enter Dante Moore in 2025. The Ducks' offense did not improve.  Moore showed inconsistencies and committed turnovers in big games an inopportune moments. His play did not elevate the Ducks and Moore realized it was in his best interest to come back to Oregon to get some additional seasoning.  He could ascend and become a consensus number one overall pick  or regress and follow the Allar/Beck path.

Meanwhile, South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers remains an athletic marvel who struggles to match the baseline processing speed required at the next level. 

Compare that to what Shedeur Sanders actually produced in college. Shedeur carried a heavily flawed Colorado program, routinely posting seasons north of 3,200 yards, a massive touchdown-to-interception margin, and showed precision accuracy under a historic amount of pressure. 

He's the Browns' bird in the hand.  He is also a good human being who spends time visiting hospitals, is generous with charities and just wears a smile. How does one root against that?

The "Anyone But Shedeur" Sorsby Delusion

The anti-Shedeur sentiment has gotten so wild that sections of the fan base and media are looking at Brendan Sorsby as a preferred alternative, claiming he has the "gritty, traditional profile" the Browns need. Let’s let the college productivity do the talking:

Metric (College Career Baseline)	Shedeur Sanders	Brendan Sorsby
Completion Percentage	69.3%	57.2%
TD-to-INT Ratio	Over 3.5 : 1	Under 2 : 1
Passing Yards Per Game	291.5 YPG	185.4 YPG
Under-Pressure Passer Rating	94.2	71.8

The gambling aside (which is its own issue), Sorsby is a fine developmental player. Wanting to spend additional premium draft assets to chase him over a quarterback who completed nearly 70% of his passes while being the most targeted man in college football is, however, pure scouting malpractice. It smacks of the same draft bias that built up Drew Allar and Cade Klubnik as "safe, prototypical" options, only for both to show their limitations when the lights got bright.

Let It Play Out

 It is time to stop perpetually looking for a quarterback in next year's draft who is going to save the franchise, only to rinse and repeat. The Browns had number one overall picks two years in a row. They came out with Baker Mayfield, not Pat Mahomes, Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson.  But to be fair, none of the talking heads thought Mahomes, Allen or Jackson would be the guy in his draft.  Allen was far too inaccurate, Mahomes too unorthodox and Jackson needed to switch positions to have an NFL career.  But these same guys are drooling over Arch, so he must be really special, right?

If Shedeur Sanders wins the starting job in training camp, the advice to the Cleveland Browns and the Dawg Pound is simple: Accept it, embrace it, and let the season play out.

Do not spend the next ten months praying for Browns' losses to score a top-5 pick in 2027.  Chances are that the Browns will spend it (and more) on Manning—a player who, to date, has lived off a family pedigree rather than dominant, elite college football production. Shedeur earned his stripes in the trenches of college football’s most chaotic environment. He's now a Cleveland Brown, regardless of how he got here.

Give the man his opportunity, support the jersey, and stop wishing the next seventeen games away. If Sanders proves you right and get what you wanted all along we can all root for his replacement to succeed next season. If you are wrong and still don't take to Sanders I'm sure the Cardinals are looking for a few more fans.