Shedeur Sanders endured one of the most shocking falls in the NFL Draft before the Cleveland Browns finally called his name in the fifth round. As Sanders plummeted, analysts wondering how long it would take for a team to finally pull the trigger on the talented Colorado quarterback.
For some teams, the moment may have never come.
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Sanders was reportedly removed from at least three NFL Draft boards prior to the event due to his “entitled” attitude, according to WFAN’s Boomer Esiason. The former NFL quarterback said he spoke to NFL personnel people with three separate teams, who said their team’s owner told them to take Sanders completely off their draft board.
Esiason said both Shedeur and his father, NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, played a role in that decision. Esiason claimed Shedeur’s comments about changing a team’s culture turned off some owners. It didn’t help that Deion made comments suggesting he would try to control where Shedeur went in the 2025 NFL Draft. Deion eventually reversed course, but the damage was already done.
Based strictly on talent, many evaluators expected Shedeur Sanders to be picked in the top half of the draft. Some had him as a first-round pick. Those who were more critical of Sanders still saw him as a guy who should go in the first three rounds.
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So when Sanders was not selected during the first two days of the draft, questions emerged about his fall. Was his talent completely misjudged, or were other factors at play?
In the lead up to the 2025 NFL Draft, Sanders was ripped by anonymous evaluators for the way he handled the interview process with teams. One NFL assistant called Sanders the “worst formal interview” that assistant ever experienced.
Esiason’s comments fall into a similar category. Something about the way Shedeur and Deion handled the draft process seemed to play a major role in Shedeur dropping to the fifth round.
While the fall was unexpected, Shedeur handled it well publicly. It will now be up to him to prove his skeptics wrong, and make the Browns look smart for taking a player many believed should have gone much earlier.
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As a fifth-round pick, Sanders isn’t guaranteed anything in the NFL. If he wants to prove those team owners wrong, Sanders will need to work hard to force his way up the depth chart and into a starting role.
If he does excel, Sanders’ fall could go down as one of the biggest NFL Draft blunders of all-time. He should have plenty of motivation to make those evaluators and team owners eat their words.
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