Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders falling all the way to the fifth round before the Cleveland Browns traded up to select him with the No. 144 overall choice became the biggest story of the 2025 NFL Draft.
For a piece published Monday, The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman shared why noteworthy members of the football community feel it is “not surprising” that every team passed on Sanders multiple times during the player-selection process.
“The intel I got was shocking,” a former NFL quarterbacks coach told Feldman about Sanders. “‘This guy has no awareness about how he’s coming across, or the type of leverage he has or doesn’t have.”
In his final big board, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. ranked Sanders as his QB1 as the fifth-best overall prospect in this year’s draft class. It seemed at the start of 2025 that the New York Giants could make Sanders the draft’s third pick if the Browns passed on selecting the signal-caller at No. 2. However, numerous reports have since detailed how Sanders “hit the wrong notes”
in interviews with some teams during the scouting combine and private meetings.
Mike Jones of The Athletic noted that Sanders “bombed multiple team interviews, prompting assessments that he was either sandbagging them to ensure that certain teams didn’t draft him or that he simply lacked respect for the process and/or the men sitting across from him.” According to NFL Draft analyst and league insider Todd McShay of The Ringer, Sanders’ recent visit with Giants head coach Brian Daboll “did not go particularly well,” as there was “some frustration between the two regarding Sanders’ preparation of an install package.”
McShay mentioned
that Sanders’ preparation “wasn’t there” for the install package.
“He got called out on it,” McShay continued, “didn’t like that. Brian didn’t appreciate him not liking it.”
Additionally, analysts and reporters said throughout the first several weeks of April that Sanders lacks “elite traits” needed to excel as an NFL QB1.
“He’s got a skill set, but no dominant trait. He’s a backup at this point, and those guys have to be wired for humble support of the starter,” one NFL receivers coach told Feldman about Sanders. Meanwhile, an unnamed NFL offensive coordinator told Feldman that Sanders “has some leaks in his throwing motion” and “doesn’t have an exceptional arm or running ability.”
Sanders clearly has been guaranteed nothing as part of a Browns team that already had Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett ready to compete for the starting quarterback job before Cleveland drafted Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel at pick No. 94. One would think Sanders would like to start proving critics and doubters wrong beginning with rookie minicamp practices.