Reports have surfaced explaining why Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders fell to Day Three in the NFL Draft, a slide that significantly reduced his potential rookie contract value.
Multiple NFL insiders have shared details about what might have contributed to Sanders’ unexpected draft position.
ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith initially suggested the entire Sanders family’s approach during the pre-draft process may have hurt Shedeur’s stock.
Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter pointed to Sanders’ off-field brand-building as a potential issue.
“Well, you don’t play football all the time,” Carter said. “You’re a human being the rest of the time. How you’re gonna be in the locker room, how he already came up with this line of merchandise ‘LEGENDARY.’ Like, he’s already calling himself legendary. All those things are problems. Right now, he’s working check-to-check, man.”
Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason revealed some teams completely removed Sanders from consideration.
“I know this after talking to three different personnel people in the NFL this weekend. They didn’t even have him on their board. They took him off, and they took him off because the owner said, take him off. I don’t want that guy. I don’t want this entitled person on our team,” said Esiason.
NFL analyst Colin Cowherd also shared critical assessments of Sanders during his show.
The latest reporting suggests Sanders may have intentionally performed poorly in some team interviews.
“At some of those [combine] meetings with certain teams that maybe Shedeur Sanders didn’t really want to go to… I was told that he more or less sandbagged in those interviews… I don’t know if he didn’t take them seriously, what it was, but he did not give it his all in some of those interviews,” Jonathan Jones said.
The Cleveland Browns were reportedly one of the few teams still interested in Sanders after these concerns emerged.
