BetMGM Oddsmakers Unmoved by Shedeur Sanders’ Performance
Posted on: August 9, 2025, 03:54h.
Last updated on: August 9, 2025, 03:58h.
- Polarizing Browns’ rookie QB tosses 2 TDs in impressive pro debut
- Highly rated prospect, and son of Deion Sanders, dropped fast in the NFL Draft in April
One pre-season win does not an NFL career make. Count BetMGM as one sportsbook not hopping on the Shedeur Sanders’ bandwagon after Sanders tossed two touchdowns in last night’s Cleveland Browns’ win over the Carolina Panthers.
Two TDs in the First Half
Give Sanders credit. In his rookie debut as an NFL quarterback in last night’s 30-10 win in Charlotte, NC., Sanders went 14-for-23, 138 yards and two touchdown passes in the first half, both to Kaden Davis.
His first TD toss was a pinpoint dart to Davis from the Panthers’ 11-yard line.
Sanders, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, was a highly rated draft prospect, but he’s also been polarizing, primarily around narratives about his personality, behaviour and perceived privilege.
Dramatic Drop in NFL Draft
Sanders was projected as a Top 3 pick in April’s NFL draft but he slid all the way to the fifth round, where the Browns took him.
The Browns currently have him 4th on the QB depth chart, after Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel, but that could change after last night’s performance, even though Sanders was playing against the Panthers’ second team.
“When I get out there it’s just doing what I gotta do,” he told Associated Press. “Everything else is not in my hands, so I don’t worry about it. I just don’t think that deep into everything because it’s nothing you’re gonna be able to control. So why put energy in something that you can’t control?”
LeBron Joins In on Hoopla
Even NBA superstar LeBron James got in on the hoopla during last night’s game, posting on X:
“That young (man) looking good out there! Keep going UP!!! HEAD down on the grind and HEAD high to the most high.”
Sanders is a headline-maker, no doubt about that. He even had words for a Cleveland radio host post-game who has been critical of the NFL rookie in the past.
Oddsmakers at BetMGM remain unimpressed, however. As John Ewing from BetMGM posted on X today, “Shedeur Sanders’ odds to win Offensive Rookie of the Year, +3000 yesterday, +3000 today.”
Sanders is +4000 at ESPN Bet (Ashton Jeanty, the Las Vegas Raiders running back, has the shortest odds, at +260). Sanders is +5000 at FanDuel (Jeanty is +250).
The moral of the story? Pre-season is pre-season.
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