After a Pro Bowl opt-out selection, Sanders was one of three quarterbacks to land on the AFC roster, joining Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and Joe Flacco. The latter gave Sanders a familiar face after he spent the summer and first month of the 2025 season in the same QB room with Flacco in Cleveland.
To Sanders’ delight, Flacco — who is also making his first Pro Bowl trip in his much longer career — hadn’t changed much from September to February.
“I’ve already made it,” Sanders said when asked what he hoped to get out of his Pro Bowl experience. “Talking to a lot of great players, seeing Joe Flacco back in the same sweatpants he wore in practice, everything. Just meeting people; it’s a great environment. I’m excited to be here. I’m grateful for it.”
Sanders’ last year has been full of surprises, starting with him falling from a first-round pick to a fifth-round pick by the Browns. That continued as he went third on Cleveland’s depth chart, then replaced an injured Dillon Gabriel in the Browns’ Week 11 loss to the Baltimore Ravens and eventually assumed the starting role for the remainder of a season that ended with the firing of his coach, Kevin Stefanski.
Asked to sum up his first NFL season, Sanders was succinct: “Fun,” he said, putting a positive spin on Cleveland’s 5-12 finish. “It was fun.”
The Colorado product may be entering the most enjoyable part of his NFL experience yet, surrounded by a group of AFC stars.