Where Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders was going to land in the 2025 NFL Draft was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, storylines. It took a while before everyone found out where he was going, as he waited until Day 3.
After NFL teams bypassed him throughout Days 1 and 2, the Cleveland Browns finally stepped up in the fifth round to select Sanders with the 144th overall pick.
The Reason Shedeur Sanders Might Have Slipped in the NFL Draft
Sanders was the sixth quarterback selected, behind Miami’s Cam Ward, taken first overall, Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart, also taken in the first round, Louisville’s Tyler Shough (second round), Alabama’s Jalen Milroe (third), and Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel (third). Ironically, the Browns also traded up to take Gabriel.
But there might be a reason why many teams decided not to take Sanders, at least according to CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones. Jones said Sanders might have tanked interviews to narrow his field of prospective teams.
“At some of those [NFL Combine] meetings with certain teams that maybe Shedeur Sanders didn’t really want to go to … I was told that he more or less sandbagged in those interviews,” Jones said. “I don’t know if he didn’t take them seriously, what it was, but he did not give it his all in some of those interviews.”
Jones didn’t name the teams, but said they were “rubbed the wrong way,” which apparently was the purpose. Jones added that Sanders had an “average” pro day, and his jersey retirement at Colorado also didn’t sit well with teams.
“All of these things add up,” he said.
It was thought the New York Giants, who traded up to take Dart, and Pittsburgh, which didn’t draft a quarterback during Days 1 or 2, were potential Sanders suitors. Instead, Sanders kept falling and now goes to a team that drafted a quarterback ahead of him and also has two veterans on the roster likely ahead of him in the pecking order, Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett, not to mention the injured Deshaun Watson.
It’s hardly the best situation for any quarterback, and Sanders might have done it to himself, all in the name of trying to limit where he could land. Well, that backfired. Lesson learned? Maybe, maybe not for Sanders, but the league perhaps was issuing a warning to future QBs.
“This is clearly a way for the NFL and its teams to let him and anyone else after him know: you can’t comport yourself in this way moving forward,” Jones said.
Sanders led the NCAA in completion percentage (74.0%) and the Big 12 in completions (353), passing touchdowns (37, also second in the nation), and passing yards (4,134). He also scored four rushing touchdowns.