Shedeur Sanders‘ monumental slide into the fifth spherical was the largest and most perplexing story of the 2025 NFL Draft. How did the Colorado Buffaloes quarterback, who was projected as excessive as a top-10 choose, find yourself falling to the Cleveland Browns with the 144th?
A number of days faraway from the draft, FOX Sports activities personalities mirrored on Sanders’ scenario and tried to make sense of what occurred. However the actuality is that there is not one easy rationalization.
From differing perceptions of his expertise, to his strategy to the pre-draft course of, to the “baggage” that accompanied him, here is what our analysts needed to say about why Sanders waited so long as he did to get drafted.
Motive No. 1: Shedeur Sanders wasn’t considered as a first-round expertise
Sanders was a polarizing prospect. Whereas he set passing data at Colorado and completed the 2024 season with the very best completion share (74.1%) in FBS, he additionally led the nation in sacks taken and entered the draft with questions on his pocket presence and mobility.
Many draft analysts ranked Sanders as one of many prime quarterbacks on this class alongside No. 1 choose Cam Ward, but it surely was additionally not a deep yr on the place. It is clear now that NFL entrance places of work weren’t as excessive on Sanders as evaluators within the media have been.
“How did the groupthink get to some extent the place not one media member had a supply who was a basic supervisor who was prepared to say, ‘You’re all loopy. This child just isn’t going within the first spherical,'” Danny Parkins stated on “Breakfast Ball” on Monday. “No one had it. No one had it … Man, all of us obtained duped by groupthink as a result of, clearly, the NFL didn’t view this child as a first-round choose primarily based on expertise or persona.”
Is it surprising Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth spherical | Breakfast Ball
“From the expertise perspective, he isn’t a generational expertise like his father is a generational expertise. So in case you’re not a generational expertise, you higher ace the opposite elements, the intangible elements of the method. And by all accounts, he didn’t ace the intangible facet of it,” Mark Schlereth added.
“For everyone else to be offended that he did not get drafted the place they wished him to, I do not get that in any respect,” Craig Carton chimed in. “Perhaps he did not get drafted the place they thought he’d get drafted as a result of expertise scouts do not assume he is nearly as good as he thinks he’s.”
Is it stunning Shedeur Sanders fell all the best way to the fifth spherical | The Herd
Colin Cowherd relayed what an NFL government instructed him about Sanders on “The Herd” on Monday: “This government stated, ‘If he doesn’t go within the first six to eight picks on the prime of the second spherical, then individuals view him as a backup.”
The primary two rounds of the draft, particularly, are stockpiled with potential NFL starters. If there was a sense that Sanders was not a starter, then it is comprehensible why he wasn’t drafted within the first couple of rounds.
That being stated, Sanders dropping all the best way to the fifth spherical would not inform the entire story.
Motive No. 2: Groups did not need to be a part of the Sanders household “circus”
Shedeur Sanders and his father Deion made the previous two seasons at Colorado right into a actuality present. The staff went a mixed 13-12, however was handled and lined like a national-championship contender. The Sanders’ household held a flamboyant draft get together and performed up their celeb standing over latest months. That is not one thing NFL groups are precisely lining as much as take care of, particularly if he isn’t a sure-fire starter.
“No one needs a star backup quarterback,” Cowherd stated.
“Deion went coast to coast telling individuals, ‘If the fallacious staff drafted his son, he was going to tug an Eli Manning,'” Carton stated, referring to the 2004 draft when Manning, who was the clear No. 1 choose, made it express that he would not play for the San Diego Chargers.
“Everybody says and claims he didn’t interview nicely,” Carton added. “He does include baggage and never everybody needs that.”
“Deion — who has many buddies within the media, saying, in the course of the Tremendous Bowl, in a number of interviews, ‘We’ll dictate phrases, we is not going to play for sure groups — after which between Shedeur sandbagging interviews, that most likely explains (his slide),” Cowherd stated.
Bruce Feldman, a FOX Sports activities contributor, wrote an article at The Athletic citing a former quarterbacks coach who stated that Shedeur harm himself by not collaborating within the Senior Bowl or on the NFL Scouting Mix. “The intel (he) was getting on Sanders was surprising: He had no self-awareness,” Cowherd shared on “The Herd.”
Motive No. 3: Not many groups wanted a beginning QB on this draft
Even when groups did view Sanders as an NFL starter, or with the potential to be one, “there weren’t a variety of groups that wanted a quarterback that might are available as a rookie and begin for them,” Keyshawn Johnson stated on “Speak” on Monday.
Shedeur Sanders dropping to the fifth Spherical – What went fallacious? | Converse
The Tennessee Titans picked Ward. The New York Giants signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, and preferred Jaxson Dart over Sanders. The Las Vegas Raiders have Geno Smith. The Seattle Seahawks changed Smith with Sam Darnold.
So, that left the New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers and Browns as starter-needy groups. The Saints determined to draft Tyler Shough in the second round. The Steelers, who chosen Will Howard within the sixth spherical, are nonetheless speaking to free-agent quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
And the Browns, who additionally used a third-round choose on Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, finally determined so as to add Sanders too.
Browns choose Shedeur Sanders at No. 144 choose, what drop says in regards to the QB | First Issues First
“As he began sliding, and we obtained previous all of the groups that wanted quarterbacks a number of instances, it may have simply gone additional,” Eric Mangini stated on “First Things First.”
“I believe this was: possession determined in Cleveland.”
Regardless of who made the choice, Sanders did get drafted. And he may have a chance to show himself within the NFL — and show his doubters fallacious.
[MORE: Shedeur Sanders now has the chance to shut everyone up]
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