During an interview with Up & Adams with Kay Adams, Shedeur Sanders sounded far more like a seasoned veteran than a quarterback coming off his rookie season with the Cleveland Browns.
From the start, Sanders framed everything through a wider lens than football.
“All it is is the game of life. Everybody playing it but just in different roles and different everything.”
That mindset carried through his reflections on waiting early in the season, confidence, and how he approaches growth. Sanders made it clear that patience was not something he fought against, even if it was uncomfortable.
“Everything in life it has to happen,” he said. “Like it’s based off the decisions you make. So it has to happen. And if I needed that so I could learn different things in life, then put me through that.”
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Rather than focusing on frustration, Sanders leaned into perspective, emphasizing that feelings are fleeting.
“You have a lot of different feelings, but feelings are temporary, you know,” the former Colorado Buffaloes’ star said. “So you can’t act on feelings majority of the time. You got to act on knowledge and you got to act on common sense and experience.”
That approach is also why Sanders values conversation with quarterbacks who have lived through similar moments. He said he talks often with Michael Vick, not on a schedule, but when it feels right.
“I talk to people when it feels like it’s right to talk to them,” Sanders said. “Like based on everybody is living their own individual life. They have their own problems, everything they got to do.”
The advice blends together for him once it’s applied.
“I think on it and I dwell on it and I apply it. So then I really don’t know where it came from.”
Sanders said the same was true of conversations with Joe Flacco, who shared stories about early career struggles that helped normalize adversity.
“Whatever happens, you know, it’s like you able to push through it and you able to to to get through it and be able to see the other side.”
Confidence, he insisted, has never been in question.
“I’m always the same,” Sanders said. “Whenever I feel like me then every everything works out.”
What changed during his rookie year was understanding consistency. Sanders said the season proved something important to himself.
“That’s the most thing I appreciate about this year,” he said. “I proved to myself I’m able to dominate the league.”
Still, he was quick to add the next step.
“Now to do it on a consistent basis that’s what the goal is.”
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With Todd Monken now in charge offensively, Sanders did not shy away from uncertainty surrounding his role.
“That’s what’s expected,” he said. “Each and every day I have to prove to everybody and to myself also.”
Even when discussing leadership inside the locker room, Sanders spoke with humility, particularly when asked about Myles Garrett.
“You want to always gain his respect,” Sanders said. “His actions are loud. The way how he goes about his work is loud. His results are loud.”
Asked if he feels he has earned that respect yet, Sanders was honest.
“Do I feel like I accomplished that? I don’t know,” he said. “But it’s just going to continue to make me work harder.”
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By the end of the interview, one thing was clear. Sanders does not view his rookie season as an arrival point.
“This was a building year,” he said. “There’s a lot of great lessons to learn.”
For a young quarterback already thinking in terms of standards, resources, and long-term growth, the conversation felt less like a rookie reflection and more like the foundation of what comes next.
