The NFL offseason is a chance for players to get away from football for a few months before the summer grind leading up to a new season begins. Even team activities this time of year are considered voluntary for players.
For second-year quarterback Shedeur Sanders, instead of getting away from the Cleveland Browns' team facility, he couldn't get enough of it. The 2025 fifth-round pick opted for training and working out in Berea throughout the offseason. Also, making sure he was in the building when new head coach Todd Monken opened up the first phase of his voluntary program earlier this month.
It was all in the name of building upon a promising rookie campaign in the pursuit to be great.
“Well, this is the most important thing I have to do in my life," Sanders said at volnatry minicamp on Tuesday. "I have a house here. I’m comfortable and I wanted to take everything to the next level within myself. I know with some things that I wanted to improve and I took a lot of time to self-reflect and just do a lot of things just from a different perspective, honestly. And I think I covered a lot of ground with that."
Last offseason was obviously very different for Sanders, as it is for all players prepping to be drafted. Sanders spent months training to just hear his name called by a team in late April. Then after being selected by Cleveland at pick 155, there's no rest for weary as rookie mincamp turns into OTAs, turns into mandatory minicamp, before a month reprieve and then training camp. There's simply no rest for the weary.
This year, Sanders could just focus on football and maybe more specifically honing his craft. Practice already feels a little different too, even if Tuesday was just the first day of on field work the team is allotted for this special bonus minicamp.
“Well, honestly, I mean, I was in practice a little more," Sanders joked about the biggest differences ik his preparation this year. "No, honestly, it's just the vibe, the overall feeling just of the team. It's the overall feeling of the responsibility of our players."
Being around the building allowed Sanders to connect with Monken the moment he arrived in the building. Their first interaction was captured by the Browns social media team, with Monken joking with Sanders that his former team, the Baltimore Ravens wanted to draft Sanders last year.
Monken has brought a new energy to the building. Those conversations with his new head man have set the tone for his second season.
"I think Coach just spoke life into me," said Sanders. "And then when you do that, then you just get the best result for me, honestly ... So I was here one day and he was like, 'Well, if you want to be the best quarterback you want to be, then you got to do that on a daily thing, on a daily regimen, on daily time.' So that's what clicked for me. And then I was like, ‘Okay, I need to improve this area.’ And it's just one step at a time."
One thing that remains the same from 2025 is the fact that Sanders finds himself in yet another competition to be the Browns' starting QB. In the months ahead, he'll battle it out with Deshaun Watson and Dillon Gabriel for the starting job.
The stakes may be high, but Sanders isn't thinking too far ahead. His focus is on controlling what he can control.
"We’re competing against ourselves because life is a long time," he said. "Our time is, on God's time. We just come in and every day put our deposits in what we’re supposed to do and build towards our craft, but it's not our time. If we thought we had control of anything, then we'll be fools. That's not up to us. It's up to us to approach every day and take advantage of each and every rep and each and every time."
Building those habits starts now. Every rep will help paint a picture of who will be the Browns starting quarterback in 2026.
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