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When quarterback prospect Shedeur Sanders fell out of the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, there were some who couldn’t believe he hadn’t been picked by an organization, although it wasn’t considered a total shock.
But with Friday night seeing three more quarterbacks not named Sanders come off the draft board, the reaction was pure shock.
Sanders, the Colorado Buffaloes quarterback who was a Heisman Trophy finalist this past college season, remains available heading into the third and final day of the NFL Draft. There have been 102 prospects taken off the board, and with Round 4 beginning at noon in Green Bay, everyone is wondering which NFL team will finally pull the trigger on Sanders.
Surprise and shock might not even be the words to describe this fall down the draft board, arguably being the biggest we’ve seen in recent memory for someone whom many considered to be, at the very least, a Day 2 selection.
Why is this happening for Sanders? It’s the question on everyone’s mind, including ESPN’s Booger McFarland, who thinks the answer lies beyond the tape.
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“It’s gotta be about more than football,” he said during the NFL Draft broadcast on the network. “He’s the best pure passer you can draft. When you start to see developmental projects like Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel – and nothing against those guys, but they’re not nearly the player that Shedeur Sanders is. When they go before him, the only thing you can say is that it’s more than football.”
Tyler Shough (New Orleans Saints), Milroe (Seattle Seahawks), and Gabriel (Cleveland Browns) were all selected on Friday night in respective order. Gabriel, especially, was the icing on the cake for those who were baffled that Sanders hadn’t gone off the board, as some experts didn’t have him on their top five quarterback rankings heading into the draft.
Mel Kiper Jr., the longtime NFL Draft analyst with ESPN, has been adamant about Sanders’ talent, ranking him the highest-graded prospect on his big board. He was vocal about Sanders making it out of the first round on Thursday night, but he was appalled to see what happened the next day.
“I think it’s disgusting,” he said during a lengthy rant after Day 2 came and went. “I don’t understand what the heck’s going on with this. . . . Somebody’s gonna have to explain that one to me.”
Joel Klatt, who called several Buffaloes games this past college season for Fox Sports, has seen what Sanders can do for a football program in person.
During NFL Network’s broadcast, Klatt pointed the finger at the narratives that were built about Sanders during the pre-draft process as to a reason why he’s slipping.
“Shedeur represents everything I dislike about the NFL Draft, and it’s only one thing: it’s narratives. It’s narratives that are built up, lazy, and quite frankly, trash. When you come out as an anonymous source about some meeting that you had, and you don’t think that some kid measured up to what you wanted him to be when he walked in your room, I think that’s trash.
“Shedeur Sanders is going to be a good quarterback in the National Football League, and I think he’s going to go make some head coach and some fan base very happy, because he’s already done that in his career in what I think is a very difficult spotlight for his dad at the University of Colorado and a program that was nothing before he got there for two decades.”
SHEDEUR SANDERS STAYING CONFIDENT AS STUNNING NFL DRAFT FALL HITS FINAL DAY: ‘THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING’
At the same time, Klatt also believes this is time for Sanders to reflect, because the analyst feels it isn’t the tape that’s causing this freefall.
“His play on the field would suggest he should already have been selected,” Klatt explained. “There were some quarterbacks, their play on the field probably doesn’t warrant a selection over his play on the field.
“The reason he’s undrafted at this point is because of the person that sat with those teams and did not, for whatever reason, jell with them.”
It’s not just the analysts opining about Sanders’ draft situation – even President Donald Trump jumped into the mix to say how crazy it was.
“What is wrong with NFL owners, are they STUPID? Deion Sanders was a great college football player, and was even greater in the NFL. He’s also a very good coach, streetwise and smart! Therefore, Shedeur, his quarterback son, has PHENOMENAL GENES, and is all set for Greatness,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith called it “a damn disgrace.” Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who already has a young quarterback after taking Bo Nix in the first round last years, admitted his surprise and even the Buffaloes football account on X posted 10 minutes worth of Sanders highlights, just to remind everyone of how good he can be on the gridiron.
These reactions are just the tip of the iceberg, as the football world continues to be bewildered at Sanders being available heading into the fourth round on Saturday.
After the final pick was made in Round 3, Sanders, who has been surrounded by friends and family at home, including his father and Colorado coach Deion Sanders, posted on X.
“Thank you GOD for EVERYTHING,” he wrote.
Of the teams still in search for a potential new quarterback on the depth chart, the Pittsburgh Steelers, believed to be an option in Rounds 1 and 3, remain a frontrunner, as do the Las Vegas Raiders.
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