144 was not the number the 23-year-old Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders expected to be drafted at when he woke up on April 24, the day of the 2025 National Football League (NFL) Draft. Sanders was a projected first-round pick in many mock drafts, including one by ESPN NFL insider Peter Schrager, who had the quarterback going off the board at pick 21 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This means that Sanders went 123 spots later than he was projected to.
It’s common for “slides” (a player selected later than expected) to occur throughout the draft; however, going 123 spots off where your projection is set is not ordinary. In an article written by Dan Tracey from The Sporting News, Tracey ranks free agent and longtime Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers as his second biggest draft slide of all time (behind Sanders). However, Rodgers only slid 23 spots from his projection and was still a first-round pick in the 2005 NFL draft. While Rodgers’ slide wasn’t related to anything in particular, Hall of Fame Quarterback Dan Marino slid in the 1983 draft because of alleged drug usage, and Pro Bowl Tackle Laremy Tunsil slid in the 2016 draft because of a leaked video of him using a gas mask to smoke marijuana. Both players were still selected in the first round. This means Sanders must have done something much worse to fall to the fifth round, right?
No, Sanders was never involved in any scandals during his time at Colorado or Jackson State. This begs the question: What caused Sanders’ fall? While there is no definitive answer, most believe that the cockiness displayed by Sanders during top 30 visits and interviews at the NFL scouting combine throughout the draft process was the leading factor in Sanders falling over 100 spots. 98.5 the Sports Hub’s Alex Barth believes that teams didn’t love Sanders’ talent as a player enough to select him in the first round, and the burden of Sanders wanting to be “the guy” in the later rounds would be too much for them to handle. Similarly, teams did not appreciate the entitlement Sanders brought with him, as stated by one assistant coach in an interview with CBS Sports when he described Sanders as “the worst formal interview I’ve ever been in in my life. He’s so entitled. He takes unnecessary sacks. He never plays on time. He has horrible body language. He blames teammates. But the biggest thing is, he’s not that good.” The quote may have come off as a bit extreme to fans and media members, but as the world witnessed throughout the three-day process of the draft, all 32 teams agreed with the anonymous coach with most of them passing on the quarterback four to six times.
Although 257 extraordinarily talented players were selected in this year’s draft, pick number 144 was the storyline before the draft, during the draft and remains the storyline of the draft as we sit here today. Hosts on every sports talk show have been talking about Shedeur Sanders’ fall to the Browns in the fifth round. Long time ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith chimed in on X (formerly Twitter) saying, “This kid is a first rounder. In a different way, this is Kaepernick all over again…..being kept out. A damn disgrace. I don’t care what anyone says!” Smith suggests that this is a racial issue, as he mentions Colin Kaepernick, who was essentially banned from the NFL after taking a knee during the national anthem and trying to be an activist towards African Americans.
While you might have different reasons as to why Sanders fell out of the first round, it was still shocking to see him fall as far as he did. However, it was encouraging to see him in good spirits after he was taken by the Cleveland Browns. These were a rough few days for Sheduer, as he was also allegedly prank called by former Jets interim head coach and now Falcons defensive Coordinator Jeff Ulbrich’s son telling him the Saints would be selecting him in the second round. Sanders’ fall was unexpected and could be related to many things, but he is now starting a new chapter in his life, joining Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Deshaun Watson in Cleveland’s quarterback room.
