NFL Draft: Shedeur Sanders’s Fall to Day 3 Was Predictable and Avoidable
After the first round, we looked at how the media tore down the Colorado quarterback. After Rounds 2 and 3, it’s fair to look at his family’s approach to the predraft process.
Assuming that the Pittsburgh Steelers and Aaron Rodgers have some kind of unofficial pact (or that Pittsburgh is prepared to pay the Atlanta Falcons’ ridiculous ransom for Kirk Cousins), there are no teams looking for a starting quarterback now. And if a team is looking for a good backup, it’s incredibly difficult to believe that Sanders will fit that bill.
We can debate the fairness of this statement and whether we have become the very people we despised from a night ago, but much of what I’m about to say is impossible to refute. Shedeur’s father, the legendary Deion Sanders, had said publicly before the draft that he would prevent certain teams from taking his son. He has also posted on social media—to an account with 1.8 million followers—a guarantee that Sanders would go in the top five and accused a former NFL quarterback (Dan Orlovsky, who, as a former fifth-round pick, may actually end up going higher than Shedeur at this point) of “hating.” In addition, a cavalcade of Deion sycophants, friends and globbers-on, each with their own massive social followings, have turned the idea of teams not selecting Shedeur into some kind of anti-celebrity witch hunt. To name just two: Stephen A. Smith and, yes, the sitting President of the United States.
When considering the sheer magnitude of it all, it’s not hard to put oneself in the shoes of a general manager who is just one perilous decision away from being fired and imagining that person throwing up both hands, saying screw this. It’s not hard to look at the Sanders draft party, which was more heavily produced than Battlefield Earth, the pro day—excuse me, The Showcase, complete with VIP seating and a logo/slogan (WE AIN’T HARD 2 FIND)—the second logo (a modified dollar sign), the references to being “legendary” and the explosive reaction to any perceived slight, and seeing nothing but an endless migraine.
This isn’t a conspiracy. It isn’t blackballing. It’s basic human decision making. Sanders doesn’t offer the untapped upside of someone like Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, for example. Because he has spent his career being maximized through a carefully curated process overseen by his father, there’s little evidence of some unrealized gold mine that will make the migraines seem worth it.
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 April 2025 - 01:23 AM.