Leading up to last week’s National Football League Draft, Shedeur Sanders was, you might say, a prime candidate to be picked in the first round by a team that needs a quarterback. The Browns, Giants and Saints were mentioned most often.
So, what happened?
Did being Coach Prime’s son have anything to with his plummet into the fifth round on the third day of selections? Dad’s flamboyance seems to have inspired the disgusting pranks, if nothing else.
ESPN draftnik Mel Kiper insisted (all the way through Sanders’ selection by Cleveland with the 144th pick) that Shedeur was the best quarterback in the draft.
Pro Football Focus and Sports Weekly both ranked him second, behind only the first player taken overall by Tennessee, Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward.
On PFF’s “Big Board” ranking of all players in the draft, Sanders was the 45th best overall prospect. Sports Weekly had him 34th.
Yet quarterbacks with the following overall rankings by PFF—100, 131, 133 and 164—all were drafted ahead of Prospect 45/34.
Sanders completed 74% of his pass attempts for Colorado last season, which led all major programs the nation. It also was better than the four QBs who topped 70% in the NFL last year.
Shouldn’t being able to hit your target more often than anyone else count for something?
As Thursday’s first round morphed into Friday’s second and third, then into the first half of Saturday’s final four rounds, Shedeur’s name remained on the board.
The Jets traded up to snag Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss at 25. Louisville’s Tyler Slough, an older rookie given he’ll celebrate his 26th birthday in September, went to the Saints at 40.
Fifty-one picks passed before another quarterback came off the board, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, then two picks later Cleveland called the name of Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel.
Fifty more picks passed—excruciatingly for Shedeur, his dad and ESPN’s Kiper—before the Browns gave up two late picks to trade up and finally throw a line to the battered Buffalo.
Statistically, Sanders was better in 2024 than Cleveland’s earlier pick.
Gabriel completed 72.9% of his passes last year and threw for 3,857 yards and 30 touchdowns. Sanders threw for 4,134 yards and 37 TDs—more of both while playing in one fewer game.
Significantly, Sanders excelled under much different circumstances.
The best quarterbacks usually have a reliable running attack to keep defenses from teeing off on the passer and his receivers, as well as a stout offensive line to keep the quarterback upright.
Sanders had neither; Gabriel both.
Colorado rushed for 847 yards in 13 games, and Shedeur was sacked 42 times. Oregon ran for almost three times as much, 2,211, and Gabriel was sacked exactly half as often.
How should Coach Prime’s son deal with such an apparent slight?
“Like it or not, he has to deal with it,” said Louis Riddick, previously a director of prop personnel for two NFL teams and now an ESPN analyst.
“This is not a talent issue,” Riddick also said. “This is a ‘Do we want you in play for us?’ discussion.”
Shedeur turned off many scouts when he declined to participate in off-season showcases, and some say he didn’t interview well (though the Browns deny this). There’s also a suggestion that some teams decided that Neon Deion would be more of a distraction than they need, even as just Shedeur’s dad.
But NFL teams have shown they’ll play a bank robber if he helps them win, so I discount these as decisive considerations.
Whatever the case, Shedeur Sanders—despite all of the drama and rumors—finds himself with THE team that affords him the greatest opportunity he could have hoped for.
The occupants of Cleveland’s quarterback room include 40-year-old Joe Flacco; expensive and troubled Deshaun Watson, whose record with the Browns in three interrupted seasons is 9-10; Kenny Pickett, who flunked out after two disappointing seasons as the successor to Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburg; Gabriel and Shedeur.
It’s also worth noting that 63% of the players in the NFL last season were drafted in the fourth round or later or were signed as undrafted free agents.
Speaking of his fifth-round pick, Browns general manager Andrew Berry said:
“It’s a guy we think can outproduce his draft stock.”
Tom Brady, Joe Montana and Brock Purdy all did. Why not Shedeur?
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Denny Dressman’s 17th book, a collaboration with Kansas City artist Anthony High titled Black Baseball’s Heyday – Capturing An Era in Art and Words, will be published this summer. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.