By now, NFL fans across the world know the story of Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders and his slide in the 2025 NFL Draft. Sanders was a highly rated quarterback by the media, with many believing him to be a top-10 pick. However, he fell all the way down to the fifth round of the draft.
It was not the first time the media rankings were wrong about a player. It’s certainly not even the first time it’s happened recently. Fans likely remember the Malik Willis-Kenny Pickett draft, where many felt Willis could have been a first-rounder alongside Pickett.
However, the sheer magnitude of the media’s error sparked a discussion that continues to this day. One former teammate of Sanders chimed in with an interesting perspective on why his former signal-caller fell as far as he did.
Former Colorado WR’s True Feelings on Browns’ Shedeur Sanders Slipping in NFL Draft
Former Colorado wide receiver Lajohntay Wester appeared on “The Water Boyz Show” on Wednesday. He was asked about his relationship with Sanders and how he was recruited to Colorado. Eventually, the topic of the quarterback’s draft slide came up. Wester did not hold anything back.
“A lot of people don’t like to see a confident black man who’s under a real public figure, parent for real,” Wester said. “Coach Prime (Deion Sanders), he’s a public figure. He’s a legend. A lot of people look up to him. But the route that Coach Prime took as far as coaching, I think it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.”
The former Colorado receiver went on to say that the way people felt about the Sanders family did not extend only to Shedeur. Every player coming out of Colorado for the 2025 NFL Draft was affected by the family’s perception, in Wester’s mind.
BE THE GM OF YOUR FAVORITE TEAM: PFN’s FREE NFL Mock Draft Simulator
“They felt threatened. The Deion Sanders family, they a threat to a lot of people. And they just being them. I feel like that played a big role. Not only just Shedeur, but a lot of people around them… all of us. We all took a drop in the draft because of things like that,” Wester explained.
In the end, Sanders found a new home with the Browns in the fifth round. His rookie season in the NFL was far from a normal one, of course. He did find his way into the starting role and showed flashes of promise.
Overall, though, it was a bit of tough sledding. He threw 7 touchdowns to 10 interceptions to go with 1,400 yards passing in 2025. Among all eligible quarterbacks, Sanders had the second-lowest quarterback impact score (63.0) in the NFL, according to PFN’s QB Impact Metric.
Sanders has a chance to compete for the starting job in 2026. Things may not have gone as the former Colorado star envisioned, but he is still in control of writing his own story at the NFL level. The Browns begin the 2026 NFL season on September 13 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
