Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam pushes back on claims he influenced Shedeur Sanders pick

Despite comments by former coach Eric Mangini suggesting the opposite, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam denied Tuesday that he forced general manager Andrew Berry to draft quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of this past spring's Draft. Haslam's comments came in a response to a reporter's question concerning a narrative that he influenced the Browns' selection of Sanders following his freefall to the fifth round of the Draft.

Mangini popularized the idea that Haslam made the call to draft Sanders. He suggested that such occurred during an appearance on FS1's First Things First just after the Draft in April. In supporting his claim, Mangini cited meddling by Haslam that led to the Browns' ill-fated decision to take another mercurial star college quarterback, Johnny Manziel, in the 2014 Draft.

"I think the owner said 'In the fifth round, we're gonna draft this guy,'" Mangini said. "How'd that work out for Johnny Manziel when the owner said 'do that'?"

Speaking to reporters for the first time since the Draft, Haslam referred a question about why the Browns drafted Sanders to Berry, only offering that they thought he was "good value" at the No. 146 pick, before a more detailed response on the idea that he had influenced the pick.

"We have good process, okay? And if you'd have told me Friday night driving home 'Y'all are gonna pick Shedeur,' I would've said that's not happening," Haslam said. "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 Andrew Berry's call. Andrew made the call to pick Shedeur, just like who's gonna start or what play we're gonna call is (coach Kevin Stefanski's) call. But that's Andrew's call, he made the call."

In spite of his star power as the son of Deion Sanders and projections as perhaps the top quarterback in this year's Draft, Shedeur Sanders plummeted all the way to the fifth round of the Draft after his personality and lack of professionalism in the pre-Draft process reportedly turned off teams. That included insinuations that Sanders had deliberated thrown his interviews with teams he did not want to be drafted by. Sanders' slide finally ended when the Browns -- despite having already drafted another quarterback in Dillon Gabriel-- chose him with the No. 146 overall pick.

Haslam has overseen the Browns being thrust back into quarterback hell after the ill-fated decision to dump Baker Mayfield after the 2021 season in favor of a mega-trade and fully guaranteed contract for Deshaun Watson despite his baggage, which included accusations of being a serial sexual predator. Haslam took responsibility for the failure of Watson as the Browns' quarterback earlier this year, calling it a "big swing and miss" by the organization.