The Cleveland Browns are a few days into training camp ahead of the 2026 NFL season, and a notable visitor showed up Thursday in Berea. Deion Sanders, father of Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders, attended practice to watch his son compete in Cleveland’s starting quarterback competition against Deshaun Watson. The elder Sanders’ presence drew attention, but it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. The Browns have had Deion Sanders around before, and they will again as long as his son is on the roster.

There’s a personal relationship between the Sanders family and the Haslam family. Beyond that, Deion wants to watch his son compete at the highest level. Sanders said earlier in the offseason that he wanted to have a conversation with first-year Browns coach Todd Monken about Shedeur and what could best help him develop. It was something that didn’t happen with the previous coaching staff as it should have, Sanders believed.

Todd Monken shares what came out of his conversation with Deion Sanders

Some of those conversations looked to have taken place Thursday. Monken spoke about his interaction with Deion Sanders after practice:

“He gave me a little bit of insight, but we were up against it (time), Andrew Berry was next. So, I had to give him up to Andrew,” Monken said. “There was some back and forth as to being around Shedeur, in terms of how he processes things personality-wise, and competitive-wise — he got into at the end, it terms of what makes him tick, which was good. But we’ve seen that. Most of what he said, we’ve been able to see. We haven’t gotten to games yet — that’s a different animal. But at this point, what he talked about, I would have said, yeah, that’s how I’ve seen it.”

Shedeur Sanders faces a critical second NFL season

Shedeur is entering his second season with the Browns after starting seven games as a rookie. That stretch came with bumps and bruises, a 3-4 record, and a 7 touchdown to 10 interception ratio through his first few starts. Now Sanders is trying to win the starting quarterback job and prove he can be the Browns’ franchise quarterback, removing the need for Cleveland to take one in the 2027 NFL Draft.

The competition against Watson won’t be easy to win. Watson is playing for his next contract with free agency looming after this season, giving him plenty of motivation to reclaim the starting role. Still, it was notable that Deion Sanders made a stop in Berea on Thursday and that the Browns engaged him in conversation at both the head coach and general manager levels. 

This summer will be telling for Shedeur’s future in Cleveland. Even if he doesn’t win the starting job, history tells us he’ll still get his chance with the Browns this fall.