Shedeur Sanders has officially signed his rookie contract with the Cleveland Browns, and we now know how much he will be entitled to earn.
Sanders agreed to a four-year, $4.6 million deal with Cleveland on Monday, according to multiple reports. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network revealed that Sanders will receive a signing bonus of $447,380.
Shedeur Sanders’ four-year, $4.6 million deal includes a $447,380 signing bonus. https://t.co/HUcnp7L496
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 19, 2025
The bonus is in line with what Sanders was projected to get after falling to the fifth round of the draft. It is not even close to what he could have received had he gone in the first round, as some expected. For context, had Sanders gone No. 3 overall, his signing bonus would have been just shy of $29.5 million.
Even if he had been picked late in the first, Sanders would have been in line for something in the neighborhood of $8 million for his bonus.
Sanders will probably be making less in the NFL this season than he was last year at Colorado when taking NIL money into account. That is how damaging his draft slide was for him.
Eventually, the Browns will likely be happy to pay Sanders if he can prove himself as an NFL starting quarterback. He has work to do in that department as his career gets underway.
