While Cam Ward continues to remain the consensus top quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft, the evaluations for the second best between Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart are heating up.
Initially considered a contender to be picked first overall, many experts have started to believe that Shedeur could fall potentially out of the top 10. The Ringer’s NFL Draft expert Todd McShay recently went a step further, predicting Sanders would be picked after Dart in the first round.
However, McShay’s prediction hasn’t sat well with FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt, who described the speculations around Sanders falling draft stock as “fake chatter.”
Joel Klatt Describes Jaxson Dart Over Shedeur Sanders as ‘Fake Chatter’
It’s the time of the year when just about anything can sway the narrative around a player ahead of the NFL Draft. And currently, no player is feeling that more than Sanders. He has seen his draft stock absorb multiple hits throughout this year’s pre-draft process.
Dart, meanwhile, has had his reputation boosted from a second-round prospect into a consensus first-round pick. While Sanders has been punished for being ranked so highly in the first place, Dart has appeared to profit from the situation. Draft analysts and plugged-in reporters keep pushing the two players closer together in the rankings.
However, Klatt has always rated Sanders higher than Dart, and described the chatter around the Colorado QB slipping behind the Rebels QB fake.
“I would categorize it as fake chatter,” he said on the latest episode of the “Up and Adams Show.” Klatt further added that there was a “decent gap” between Ward and Sanders as the top two QBs and Dart as the third-best.
“There’s a decent gap between the top two quarterbacks and then where Jaxson Dart is. It’s nothing to take away from Jaxson Dart. I really love him as a leader. He’s going to succeed in the National Football League; I truly believe that.
“But it’s way harder to project him because of his offense – again scripted winners, quick throws, and very few times he has to sit there and control the game from the pocket.”
Similar concerns about Dart’s decision-making ability were raised by PFSN’s Reese Decker in his scouting report on the QB.
“I believe Dart has the physical ability to be a quality NFL quarterback. It shows on tape. However, the mental processing, decision-making, and communication required of a quarterback in an NFL offense is not something we’ve seen him do,” he wrote.
Nevertheless, Dart is coming off an impressive season in 2024, and given the underwhelming quarterback class, he is widely expected to be picked in the first round regardless of whether before or after Sanders.
In PFSN’s latest seven-round mock draft, the pair are going in Klatt’s order, with Sanders going No. 7 to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dart going No. 27 to the New York Giants.