Shedeur Sanders is set to make his first start of the 2026 NFL season this week when the Cleveland Browns take on the New Orleans Saints, as Deshaun Watson is sidelined with a concussion. Watson has been solid so far, so this might be Sanders' only chance to start this year. That it comes right before the trade deadline Tuesday could mean a chance to showcase why another team should deal for him.
Think of it this way: Cleveland didn't view him as the 2026 answer, so why would it view him as the 2027 answer? Trading Sanders now could bring back an asset to help position the team for the future in a way that holding on to Sanders doesn't.
Proposed Steelers-Browns trade for Shedeur Sanders
Aaron Rodgers won't be the Steelers' quarterback forever. In fact, he probably wil be the Steelers' quarterback for nine more regular-season games and an undetermined number of postseason games before he rides off into the sunset. Sure, Pittsburgh might want to change his mind, considering the team's success so far, but that probably isn't happening.
Which means the Steelers will find themselves in a familiar spot this offseason: looking for a quarterback. Drew Allar's preseason performance suggested he has the upside to at least battle for the job, but ideally, you want to have a viable player for him to battle with. I suppose that could be Mason Rudolph, but that'd be pretty boring, right?
As will be a trend in these proposed trades, Pittsburgh would look at Sanders as someone who can learn the offense between now and the offseason before battling for the starting job in 2027. Getting him in the door early gives him time to get acquainted with the system. And while a battle between Sanders and Allar isn't the most exciting, the winner would be in a decent spot to contend for the playoffs in 2027. Sanders would need to rein in some of his worst tendencies to beat out Allar, but his arm strength could make a future connection with DK Metcalf really intriguing.
Proposed Titans-Browns trade for Shedeur Sanders
Yes, a Sanders trade to the Titans feels like some kind of meme. Pairing Sanders with Cam Ward? That's just wishcasting for people with strong takes about them ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft.
But here's why I make the deal if I'm Tennessee: I'm not ready to give up on Ward yet. Inconsistency has been a hallmark of his NFL tenure, but it's too soon to draft a quarterback at the top of the 2027 NFL Draft. That would wave the white flag on Ward and admitting that a mistake was made in 2025. (Was a mistake made? No, I say. The real mistake was not surrounding Ward with weapons right from the jump.)
Right now, the Titans have Mitch Trubisky as their backup quarterback. He's a solid depth piece, but if you head into 2027 with Trubisky as the QB2 and then you decide halfway through next season that Ward isn't the answer, you gain nothing long-term from benching him for Trubisky. If there's the possibility that the Titans give up on Ward next season, I'd want someone with upside behind him, someone who could shock you by showing he could, at the very least, be a long-term backup option. And heck, maybe Ward puts it all together. Then, you have a young backup behind him who has appeal if he's ever pressed into action.
Proposed Cardinals-Browns trade for Shedeur Sanders
The Arizona Cardinals might be in the weirdest shape here among teams that need a quarterback for 2027. The team just traded away Jacoby Brissett, elevating Gardner Minshew to the starting role with Carson Beck behind him. You probably don't view either guy as the answer for next season, but there's a complicating factor at play here. The Cardinals haven't been as awful as a lot of people expected them to be.
As of now, Arizona isn't picking in the top 10 of this draft class. That likely puts them out of play for Drew Mestemaker and Darian Mensah, the two primary quarterbacks being discussed at the top of this class. Right now, they'd be in line to likely pick the third QB because the other teams ahead of them — except for Miami and New York — probably won't take a quarterback, but that could change, or we could see a team try to trade up. The Jets, for example, look like they'll have three very high picks. They could use one on Mensah, then trade back with another pick to a team that wants to come up for C.J. Carr.
The point is that the Cardinals aren't guaranteed to come away with a good rookie quarterback from this class. They could go the bridge-veteran route once again, but we mostly know what that result will be. Trading for Sanders and then letting him battle with Beck for the 2027 starting job does one of two things: either the Cardinals find a young quarterback they can build around, or both options are so bad that they actually bottom out and have a legitimate shot at whoever the top quarterback in 2028 winds up being.
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