LeBron James celebrates Shedeur Sanders amid breakout NFL debut, shuts down haters

Shedeur Sanders made a statement in the first half of his NFL preseason debut against the Carolina Panthers on Friday. NBA superstar LeBron James noticed Sanders’ success and congratulated the former Colorado standout.

“That young [king emoji] looking good out there!” James wrote on X. “@ShedeurSanders Keep going UP!!! HEAD down on the grind and HEAD high to the most high.”

“And I don’t wanna hear that ‘It’s only preseason’ bs,” James added in a follow-up post. “Cause if he was out there not going in y’all would be on his ass about it! So give credit and grace lames.”

Sanders completed 11-of-his-18 pass attempts for 103 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, without throwing an interception. Sanders started for the Browns despite having not received many, if any, first-team reps during the team’s training camp.

Sanders is listed as the Browns’ fourth quarterback on their depth chart. He trails Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel — in that order. However, after Pickett and Gabriel suffered injuries in training camp, Sanders was named the team’s preseason starter.

With each completion, Sanders is proving his critics wrong. The former Colorado standout was projected to go as early as in the top three of the 2025 NFL Draft, but fell to the fifth round, where the Browns selected him with the No. 144 overall pick.

Although he had an excellent career at Colorado, Shedeur Sanders didn’t receive any special treatment during the Browns’ training camp and even was forced to throw against the team’s equipment staff members at times. Worse, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said he hadn’t wanted to draft Sanders.

“Listen, we have good process,” Haslam said during his annual training camp address. “If you just told me Friday night driving home, y’all are going to pick Shedeur, I would say, ‘That’s not happening.’

“But we had a conversation early that morning and then we had a conversation later that day. I think we had the right people involved in the conversation at the end of the day. That’s (Browns general manager) Andrew Berry’s call. Andrew made the call to pick Shedeur, just like who’s going to start or what play we’re going to call is Kevin (Stefanski’s) call. But that’s Andrew’s call. He made the call.”

Haslam may be regretting his admission after tonight. Tune into the NFL Network to catch the second half of the Browns-Panthers preseason matchup.