Just because the 2025 NFL Draft is over, it doesn’t mean we’re done hearing about why the draft’s golden boy, Shedeur Sanders, plummeted to Round 5. It’s quite likely we’ll never hear the end of it — especially if, somehow, some way, Sanders winds up playing this season and outperforming his draft slot.
The quarterback from Colorado, once projected as a top-five pick, sat through four long rounds before the Cleveland Browns finally called his name at No. 144 overall. And for one of the loudest voices in sports media, that decision — and Tennessee’s earlier pick in particular — is nothing short of outrageous.
Skip Bayless Sounds Off on Titans, NFL Decision-Makers Regarding Shedeur Sanders
On the April 29 episode of “The Skip Bayless Show,” the longtime NFL analyst zeroed in on the Tennessee Titans’ decision to select Cam Ward over Sanders. In typical Bayless fashion, he pulled no punches, labeling the move a failure before it even began — and one that the franchise will regret.
I’m not saying this was official out-and-out collusion – you know, secret memo collusion. No, this was just a whole lot of NFL people talking to a whole lot more NFL people, saying, “F Deion and F his son.” pic.twitter.com/4klz40Wal2
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) April 29, 2025
“I have never seen anything in my almost 50 years of covering the National Football League like what the National Football League just did to Shedeur Sanders,” Bayless argued. “Again, I first guessed all of this. I said before last college football season that Shedeur should go No. 1 overall, depending on whether the team drafting first needed a quarterback. And obviously Tennessee needs a quarterback.”
Bayless was direct about the Titans’ choice at No. 1 overall. “Tennessee, I’m gonna say it one last time, a monumental mistake taking Cam Ward over Shedeur Sanders. I’m dug in, I won’t flinch on that one.”
Part of Bayless’ frustration stems from the perceived influence of Sanders’ father, Deion, on the pre-draft process. Referencing an interview on “The Dan Patrick Show” during Super Bowl week, Bayless pointed to what he considers a turning point in Sanders’ draft stock. “Dan Patrick asked Deion if there were NFL teams he didn’t want his son to play for,” Bayless recalled. “Deion answered, and I quote, ‘There’s a lot of teams I preferred he didn’t play for …’”
From there, Bayless painted a picture of league-wide resentment toward Deion’s attempts to steer his son’s NFL future. “That certainly suggested that Deion would orchestrate where his quarterback son was drafted, would engineer it the way that Archie Manning once navigated his son from the Chargers to the Giants.”
That didn’t sit well with NFL decision-makers, according to Bayless. “You want to know what teams were saying behind closed doors? They were saying, ‘F Deion and F his son. How dare him compare himself and his situation and his son to the first family of football … How dare him?!’”
Bayless didn’t stop there. He suggested the NFL may have been punishing Deion — and by extension Shedeur — for bucking tradition. “At that point, it had become clear that Deion was even representing his sons, both Shedeur and Shilo, as their agent,” he said. “And the NFL was already saying, ‘F that. F you, Deion. We don’t do business that way, in this league.’”
Whether Bayless’ Ward vs. Sanders rant proves accurate remains to be seen. But he’s dug in deep, and if Sanders performs, expect him to say “I told you so” — loudly and often.