Eric Mangini defends Shedeur Sanders after speeding incidents

Eric Mangini isn’t racing to condemn Shedeur Sanders after a couple of speeding tickets.

The former Browns head coach downplayed the significance of Sanders getting cited twice for speeding – once for driving 91 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone and once for going 101 in a 60 – during the rookie quarterback’s first two months in Cleveland.

“I don’t love it from a fifth-round draft pick,” Mangini said during a Friday appearance on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd on FS1. “I don’t love that it’s happened multiple times.

“I do think this is the first time he’s away from his dad and there’s going to be some growing pains. Would I sell my stock on it like you are? No, because of a couple speeding tickets — especially in the light of the problems the Browns quarterback room had had to deal with legally in the last few years — this is nothing.”

It is easy to write it off as “nothing” because no one was seriously injured in either incident.

But speeding, when it leads to accidents and injuries, takes on another narrative.

The Browns have addressed the incident internally with Sanders and he is “taking care of the tickets,” according to a Cleveland.com report.

“I’ve made some wrong choices personally, I can own up to them,” Sanders said when asked about his speeding tickets this week. “I made some not great choices. I learn from them. I learned.”

Sanders grew up in the spotlight as Hall of Famer Deion Sanders’ son and played under his dad’s coaching at Jackson State and Colorado.

He became a lightning rod during the NFL draft when he slipped from a projected first-round pick to a fifth-round selection who reportedly was No. 4 on the Browns’ quarterback depth chart – behind Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco and rookie third-rounder Dillon Gabriel – during spring workouts.

“This is, in fairness to Shedeur, the first time he’s been outside his dad’s overview, his dad’s house,” Mangini said. “I think he was his high school, then his college coach … This is like any kid who’s away from home for the first time. There’s going to be a couple hiccups here and there.”

Mangini went 10-22 as Browns head coach in 2009-10, with Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Seneca Wallace, Jake Delhomme and Colt McCoy as his quarterbacks.

Since then, the Browns have dealt with Johnny Maziel — who was cut after substance-abuse issues and a domestic violence arrest — and Deshaun Watson, who was suspended by the NFL for the first 11 games after he was acquired in a trade from the Texans due to allegations of sexual misconduct raised by about two dozen massage therapists. 

Watson, who remains on the Browns roster but could miss the full season due to injury, was cleared by a grand jury and settled most of the civil lawsuits against him.