There is little more uncomfortable in sports than watching a top athlete in the NFL draft slide from a high first round prospect to a spot much further down. Maybe someone who was expected to go in the first five picks fall all the way to the second round, and watching their expression every time a team passes. It’s like watching someone get turned down for a job over and over again, only on live television where cameras cut to your face every time someone else got the job.
That is exactly what happened to Shedeur Sanders, the former Colorado quarterback and Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, who even in the final days leading up to last week’s NFL draft was projected as high as third overall, especially with the NY Giants needing a QB and this year’s top prospect Cam Ward a lock to go first overall to Tennessee. But the Giants picked Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter, then the Saints took a left tackle at number nine, then even Pittsburgh who needed a quarterback took a pass at 21, and then out of nowhere the Giants traded up for a second first round pick at 25 and took quarterback Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss. Next thing you know, we’re off to perhaps the greatest slide in NFL draft history that didn’t involve a federal crime or career ending injury.
The free fall finally ended in the fifth round when Sanders was picked by the Cleveland Browns. Adding insult to injury, Sanders wasn’t even the first quarterback the Browns selected, having taking Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel in the third round. Sanders went from being a franchise quarterback in waiting to someone whose best-case scenario is holding a clipboard on the sidelines. And assuming he makes the regular season roster, his four-year contract will be just over $4 million, about $40 million less than if he went in the top three. Ironically, Sanders would have made more staying in college another year based on the millions he could have earned in NIL deals, more a statement on the wild west of college football than the NFL draft.
There’s been a lot of conjecture on why Sanders fell so far, a significant percentage tied to his public self-confidence, and I’m being generous here. Insiders reported that Sanders was unprepared for his pre-draft interviews with teams, and other suggest he brought overbearing ego to a process that mandates well-rehearsed humility. And some have simply said that Sanders just isn’t that stellar an NFL prospect despite his college success, which is a fairly common refrain for college all-stars. There’s been other conversation, including that Sanders has been unfairly targeted unlike past sons of former NFL stars – including QB’s Eli Manning and Andrew Luck, both who were number one overall picks. I don’t buy it, even remembering Eli’s pouty face before the Chargers traded him to New York. Also, the White House suggested Trump is responsible for getting a team to finally draft Sanders. So there’s that.
A couple of things are worth considering in the post mortem of Sanders slippery slide. First, especially in the social media age where everyone builds their own narrative, it’s hard for any of us to know the objective reality of Shedeur Sanders’ NFL prognosis. The Sanders we know is a mashup of TikToks, Instagram posts, commercials, and SportsCenter highlights. That’s different than the game tape NFL coaches were considering on draft night. Second, the NFL is a risk averse profession, especially when it comes to talent acquisition. For a long list of reasons, Shedeur Sanders increasingly looked like a risky proposition with uncertain potential reward. That calculus amplified with each team that said no, creating a swarm intelligence that was hard to overcome. And third, and this is my get of my lawn moment, but this may be a reminder that despite all the talk about Gen Z changing the rules about life and work, the older folks running teams aren’t dead yet. You can decide whether you like Sanders’ bravado, but I can tell you his future bosses didn’t – and care way more about a unified locker room than one player who wants to stand out. Especially if that player is a borderline NFL starter in the first place. Do not confuse the NFL with the NBA or the Taylor Swift world tour. In football, no one is bigger than the team.
And nothing was harder to watch than Shedeur Sanders on draft night.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler.
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