Should I stash Shedeur Sanders in fantasy leagues after Browns traded Joe Flacco?

Billy Heyen

Should I stash Shedeur Sanders in fantasy leagues after Browns traded Joe Flacco? image

The Cleveland Browns' QB depth chart is a bit lighter than it was to start the week.

On Tuesday, the Browns traded Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals.

That leaves Dillon Gabriel as the QB1 after his first start in Week 5, and it promotes Shedeur Sanders to the No. 2 quarterback spot.

Sanders has a huge following, and the move up the depth chart does have some people wondering if Sanders could have fantasy football value in the near future.

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Should I stash Shedeur Sanders in fantasy?

No, it's not worth stashing Shedeur in fantasy football leagues.

Specifically, if you're in a single-season (non-keeper) league, Sanders is unlikely to have much, if any, value the rest of the way. Even if he starts at some point, he'll be a very risky start, and it's not a given the Browns turn away from Gabriel at any point, anyway.

As a fifth-round pick, Sanders isn't guaranteed immediate success. And after one solid preseason outing, his final preseason game was a nightmare. There's no indication that Sanders is overly ready to make plays in NFL regular season games.

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The one exception here is in a deeper keeper league, potentially if it's a 2QB or Superflex format. There, Sanders could have future value, even if it's not this season. If your bench is big enough to stash a rookie backup quarterback, it's not impossible that Sanders will have some fantasy value down the road.

It's just very, very unlikely to happen in any meaningful way during the 2025 NFL season.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle