The idea of Shedeur Sanders winding up in the Canadian Football League has mostly been thrown around in jest so early in the former Colorado star's nascent NFL career with the Cleveland Browns.
But there's at least one well-respected ESPN reporter, Bill Barnwell, who doesn't think it's an outlandish outcome.
Here's what Barnwell wrote about Sanders in a new article on Thursday:
"If he does make the (Cleveland) roster, the best-case scenario would see him get an opportunity to start by midseason and hold on to it for the rest of the season. "If he doesn't, he might realistically be looking at a trip to the CFL, where the Toronto Argonauts hold his negotiating rights."
Those CFL negotiating rights mean that if Sanders decides to head north, the Argonauts get the first chance to offer him a contract.
Barnwell appears to be suggesting that Sanders could actually improve his stock by going to the CFL. It makes a bit of sense.
MORE: Micah Parsons risks temporary retirement, frozen contract if he leaves training camp
If Sanders doesn't earn a job with Cleveland and winds up cut, it's not obvious how many other NFL teams would want him. He did slide all the way to the fifth round and pick No. 144 in the NFL Draft, after all.
Maybe there's a scenario where he goes to Toronto, plays well and proves to an NFL team that he does belong in pro football.
The fact that Barnwell described it as realistic is certainly more firm than any other Sanders to the CFL talk has been. Maybe it'll really happen.
MORE NFL NEWS:
- Chiefs enter training camp with a big Travis Kelce worry
- Buccaneers holding rookie out because he weighs too much
- Packers converting WR into a cornerback
- Raiders' 325-pound rookie is the scariest Wildcat quarterback ever
- Browns rookie QB Shedeur Sanders could be subject to a 'second draft'
- Jason Kelce teases a historic NFL comeback