Shedeur Sanders: Anatomy of a Fall

The son of Deion dominated this year's NFL Draft discourse, sliding all the way to the fifth round after all of the hype and expectation of being a high pick.

I’ve been fascinated the past week and a half by the Shedeur Sanders saga.

For the uninitiated, he’s the quarterbacking son of NFL legend and larger-than-life Deion Sanders and played under him throughout his college football career, firstly at Jackson State, where Deion entered and took the college football coaching world by storm, before transferring and following his father to the more visible and larger college program at the University of Colorado.

Throughout the season, Sanders was signposted to be an early selection in the 2025 NFL draft, touted as high as the first overall pick to a quarterback needy team. His stock was high and this aligned with his brash, confident nature, molded in much the same way his father entered the NFL and took the league by storm as both a cornerback and occasional wide receiver and return specialist.

As the draft got closer, Sanders stock began to slide. And then the draft arrived with the writing strongly on the wall — Sanders was not only not going to be a high pick, he wasn’t going to be a first rounder. Cam Ward was the first quarterback selected, first overall, by the Tennessee Titans. The Florida prospect emerged over the previous months as the defacto number one pick and in an island on his own as the best quarterback of his class, separating himself from Sanders and the chasing pack.

This was unsurprising as all pre-draft talk speculated that Sanders was looking unlikely to be a first rounder, but eyebrows began to raise quite early when with the 25th pick the New York Giants selected Ole Miss graduate Jaxson Dart. A decent prospect, but no world beater. This began the fall of Shadeur Sanders — he was already at least the third quarterback on the shortlist, against all prior conclusions throughout the playing season and the early months of the draft process.

On night two, where rounds two and three are chosen, the picks quickly went by without his name being called. At this point it was the only storyline dominating draft coverage — draftniks were debating the slide within an inch of its life, NFL reporters and talking heads were giving their two cents, podcasts were starting and ending on the Sanders saga. It was all over television and beyond — for all the wrong reasons, the draft became the story of Shedeur Sanders.

Livestreams showed him waiting in a mansion surrounded by family and entourage, adorned with expensive jewelry — a stark contrast to many other draftees celebrating earlier selections.

Eventually, even Donald Trump decided to chime in — demanding on his Truth Social that a team select Sanders, with his press secretary Karoline Leavitt even suggesting that Trump played a role in Sanders getting drafted.

Speculation ran rampant:

• He’s being blackballed by the league, in an effort to “humble” him

• Teams, and more specifically the coaches and general managers, don’t want the Deion Sanders distraction at their teams

• He’s not as good as anyone thinks

• It’s race — teams don’t like brash, cocksure black players excelling

• He interviewed poorly, on purpose, to get picked by a team he prefers

The reality, according to multiple NFL insiders and draft experts, is far less conspiratorial. His fall appears primarily performance-based, compounded by concerns about his character and approach during the pre-draft process.

The likelihood seems to be is he’s pegged as, at least for now, a backup quarterback. A backup quarterback must have a very specific set of characteristics to flourish and benefit the team, mostly being likeable, being able to support the starting quarterback, being amenable, compliant, observable and, ideally, relatively distraction-free.

All of which are attributes scouts probably put a little question mark beside Sanders’ name.

More critically, reports revealed that Sanders’ interview performances were problematic. Unlike most prospects who approach team meetings with humility and preparation, Sanders — guided by his father and lacking a traditional agent — was perceived as overconfident and unprepared. He reportedly questioned teams about their plans to support him rather than demonstrating readiness to fit into their systems. One NFL source described his formal interview as among the worst ever encountered, and some teams removed him from their draft boards entirely due to an “entitled” attitude.

As the second and third rounds floated by with three more quarterbacks not named Shedeur Sanders selected, we got into the weekend and Day 3 of the draft. And finally, with the 144th overall pick in the fifth round, the Cleveland Browns ended his misery and chose Sanders. Strangely and amusingly, they had already picked a quarterback — Dillon Gabriel of Oregon — late in the third round, to add to the saga. Browns’ GM Andrew Berry acknowledged Sanders wasn’t graded as an elite prospect but saw value in his slide, calling him a potential steal who could outperform his draft slot.

In many ways, the Shedeur Sanders story is a classic tale of talent meeting the harsh realities of professional sports. His draft fall serves as a cautionary lesson about leadership, leverage, and the importance of preparation in high-stakes environments. The NFL draft is as much about character and fit as it is about raw talent.

Whether Sanders can write a redemption arc remains to be seen. The narrative is set for a compelling 30 for 30 documentary: a gifted young quarterback with a famous name, high expectations, a humbling fall, and a chance to prove the doubters wrong and change the narrative. The next chapter will depend on his work ethic, ability to learn, and willingness to embrace the grind away from the spotlight. I look forward to tuning in.