Johnny Manziel and Shedeur Sanders have taken very different paths to the NFL, but their careers share one notable connection: Both have started at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, and neither currently holds that role. Recently, one radio host argued that Sanders now finds himself in a situation similar to the one Manziel faced more than a decade ago.

Believe it or not, one radio host recently made the case for why Sanders now finds himself in a similar spot to the one Manziel once occupied.

Shedeur Sanders Drawing Comparison to Johnny Manziel?

Manziel was once the 22nd overall pick in the first round of the NFL Draft. Meanwhile, Sanders had to wait much longer to hear his name called. It wasn’t until the 144th pick in the fifth round that Sanders landed with the Browns.

There are many differences between the two, yet Earl “Da Pearl” Mauldin from “92.3 The Fan” recently made the case that the Browns’ QB situation in 2026 isn’t all that different from when they had Manziel over a decade ago.

“Can we travel back in time a bit to 2014,” Mauldin said. “Do you recall when Brian Hoyer was the starting quarterback here? I think that was the year Josh Gordon missed the first two games of the season. The Browns were like 4-2, and Hoyer’s play was like mid. It was average at best.”

For clarification, Gordon was suspended for the first 10 games of 2014, and those Browns were never 4-2; they went from 3-2 to 3-3 before improving to 4-3.

While the Browns may not be winning pretty right now, Deshaun Watson has helped lead them to a 4-2 record. Yet, as Mauldin explains, it’s not all about style points.

“I remember going to the games with my cousin and leaving the games, and we would get into these heated arguments about how it looked,” Mauldin said. “As a young fan, I was more concerned about the style points than the fact that the Browns was winning. I was trying to convince myself that what Brian Hoyer was doing it couldn’t be sustained, right? Do you remember who the backup quarterback was that year?”

His co-host, Spencer German, answered, “It was Manziel, right?”

Even though the Browns had a winning record with Hoyer under center, fans were still calling for the young, hotshot backup to play instead.

“If you recall, there was a cry for Johnny Manziel to take over to be the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback because people didn’t appreciate how it looked coming from Brian Hoyer,” Mauldin said.

He added, “And when it comes to the Browns, I always got this parallel that comes to real life. My father used to tell me, ‘The game stay the same, just the players change.’ Fast forward to where we are now, it’s the same situation; it’s just different players.”

The situation doesn’t feel all that similar. It’s not like Sanders is a first-round rookie like Manziel was at the time. If anything, the Las Vegas Raiders, who have a thriving Kirk Cousins with No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza waiting in the wings, are more akin to Manziel’s situation than the one Sanders is living right now.

Still, with Cleveland’s scoring offense ranking just 28th in points this season, it’s also fair to say that Todd Monken’s offense could use a boost, and perhaps Sanders is the one who could provide it.