Tommy Rees handed a ticking time bomb with Shedeur Sanders in Cleveland

If you were former Notre Dame football offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, how excited would you be if you were tapped as the man who had to deal with the traveling circus that is Shedeur Sanders and his entourage? What if the famously not shy to show off his ego quarterback was coming into town as a backup or even third-string quarterback?

There are all sorts of reasons for Fighting Irish fans to have a bone to pick with Rees, but I don’t think anyone begrudges that he’s got a mountain of a mission ahead of him following this weekend’s hysterics.

Tommy Rees must navigate Shedeur Sanders circus

Coming into last week, there was a lot of talk about Shedeur Sanders being a Top 5 draft pick. There were people who thought he and ex-Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward were 1a and 1b. And then Ward was the first overall pick and Sanders was taken by the Browns in the 5th round. And now the former Notre Dame football offensive coordinator has to deal with not just the ex-Colorado Buffaloes quarterback but his very vocal family, especially his father, who is known to offer his opinion both unbidden and loudly.

To their credit, the Sanders have been quiet about Shedeur being selected in the 5th round so far. They’re handling it well. But the fact of the matter is that Cleveland also drafted former Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel a few rounds ahead of Sanders.

There’s no guarantee that Sanders will be the starter. There’s no guarantee he’ll be the backup. And there’s guarantee that all of whatever happens from here on out will be under a microscope in no small part because of the absolute coniption fits that some members of the media threw, especially on Saturday.

There was Stephen A. Smith acting as though not drafting the younger Sanders was part of some vast conspiracy. Still no word on what the point of the conspiracy was supposed to be.

There was Mel Kiper screaming about how the NFL’s evaluations of quarterbacks was fundamentally broken while ignoring the times he was very, very wrong about QB evaluations himself.

All the noise is going to amplify when Shedeur reports to his first mini-camp. And it will get louder still if he looks like the scouting reports that decided he was not an early-round draft pick.

And then there’s former Notre Dame football coach Tommy Rees, who is just trying to put together a Cleveland Browns offense that can actually help win some games.