After a long fall down the NFL draft board, Shedeur Sanders is going back to school.
Well, in a way.
He was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round with the 144th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, ending a shocking weekend for the Colorado prospect. The takeaway was that the NFL wasn’t as high on Sanders’ talent as some analysts were.
Despite the bad news, the quarterback is on a mission to put in the work and make the Browns’ roster after training camp.
On Wednesday, May 7, Sanders was looking to go through a workout when he asked his trainer, Ryan Adams, if he knew of anyone who could help him out, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Adams called Milan Parris, a wide receiver at Walsh Jesuit High School. Parris was working out with a trio of players in Euclid, Ohio — Pauly Sadler, Devron Mills and LeMarques Greenwood II from Glenville High School — and the group quickly made their way over to St. Ignatius’ practice field in Cleveland.
“When I got the call, I just looked at my phone. It was like, ‘There’s no way,’” Parris told the Akron Beacon Journal. “After how he just got drafted to the Browns and how the draft went, I mean, honestly, I look up to him. He’s going to Colorado, doing all this stuff, and that’s something I want to do one day to provide for my family. Seeing it, it was crazy. It was the last thing I would’ve expected.”
Parris went through a two-hour workout with Sanders, using the opportunity to learn from the NFL draft pick. He ran routes, worked on technique and listened to whatever wisdom or advice Sanders could relay.
“I was definitely starstruck at first but, I mean, business is business and once the football is set down I’ve got to be serious,” Parris said. “By all means, that’s the NFL guy. I wanted him to know that maybe he could be throwing to me one day.
“The ball was definitely coming a lot harder than the high school balls. … It’s a little harder to track the ball because there’s no stripes on it because it’s an NFL ball, but it’s a little bigger. The balls coming at you are pretty powerful.”
Parris, who has committed to Iowa State, was encouraged by Sanders to push through the extensive workout.
“A lot of his routes were based off of timing,” Parris said. “Now that he’s transitioning to the next level, we were working on a lot of that. He was giving us good tips. Sometimes we’d have trouble hesitating through our routes or getting to the break and he was just like, be loose, be comfortable, and that will definitely you make a lot better.”
The future Iowa State receiver said he was trying to soak it all in, with no guarantees that Sanders will come calling again.
“The drive there was definitely nerve-wracking,” Parris said. “I was going through all types of things in my head. I had to get my head together before I arrived. On the way back, I was in shock. My family was calling my phone and, honestly, I was just trying to soak it all in.”
While Sanders turns his attention to minicamp and eventually training camp, he continues to create memorable experiences for the people in Ohio.
Although his journey since the start of the draft has been challenging, he is gaining many fans along the way. Who knows, he might even be meeting a few future teammates in the process.