Rewind the clock to a couple of months ago, and Shedeur Sanders was being hailed as a possible top-two choice. Then, speculations put him at the deep end on day 1. The stats? 4,134 yards, 37 touchdowns, and 74% completion rate—certified QB1 material. Scouts, however, weren’t impressed by the spreadsheet. When the draft finally arrived, there were four rounds of silence as he sat and watched 144 players get selected before him. It wasn’t a party when the Cleveland Browns called his name. It was a chilly and uncomfortable wake-up call.
Because rumours had already begun to escalate into full-fledged roasts behind the scenes. Scouts described him as “entitled” and “uncoachable.” Former NFL executive Andrew Brandt revealed the worst truth of all as a result of all of this: perhaps Shedeur did not fall. Perhaps the media just got it all wrong from the start.
Andrew revealed the truth about Shedeur Sanders’ startling decline on the draft board in the most recent episode of The Business of Sports. “The disconnect between how the media saw Shedeur Sanders and how NFL teams saw Shedeur Sanders was as big as we’ve ever seen in the history of the draft,” Brandt said. Sanders woke up Saturday morning still undrafted, despite the expectations of most observers that he would go off the board Thursday or Friday night. The Cleveland Browns didn’t decide until they selected No. 144 in the fifth round.
That wasn’t a slide, Brandt said; for many NFL teams, it was always the plan. “That’s the story. There’s no story that he fell. The story is he was picked where everyone in the NFL thought he’d be picked. When he was picked,” Brandt went on. He disclosed that league sources texted him with the identical response soon after Sanders was chosen: “That’s about right.”
This has nothing to do with a poorly executed draft or an overlooked assessment. Many scouts and executives believed that Shedeur would never make it on Day 1 or Day 2. The media’s fabrication of his alleged decline was a hype bubble that never reflected the reality at the front office. Brandt made it clear that Sanders was only considered a mid-round quarterback, and not the face of a team in the future. No warning signs. No plot. Just chilly assessments. Though not everyone agrees with that assessment.
Giants rookie torches NFL for disrespecting Shedeur Sanders
Malik Nabers, the New York Giants’ No. 6 overall pick, flat-out disagrees. In his opinion, Sanders getting taken in the fifth round wasn’t business—it was disrespect. “There’s no way in hell Shedeur should’ve gone in the fifth round,” Nabers stated.
Sanders’ reputation may have suffered as a result of an alleged unpleasant meeting between him and head coach Brian Daboll at the Giants. Who passed on him to select Jaxson Dart at No. 25. Nabers spoke candidly about it, implying that the review procedure might have placed too much emphasis on personal feelings. “You can’t knock his talent. Some things you just can’t knock,” Nabers added. “We gotta stop making feelings with how people play that linger. Yeah, he might have some things he says off the field, but that don’t have to do with how he plays football.”
It’s also more than simply verbal praise. Before the draft, Nabers and Sanders played catch in New York City, where Nabers got a close-up look at the arm talent. He was not the only one who was taken aback. A growing number of fans and players believe that Shedeur’s personality, his confidence, or even his media presence may have scared off teams more than his game tape did. However, none of that should take precedence over what occurs on the field, according to Nabers.
And Sanders might not get an immediate opportunity to prove it because the Browns already have a number of quarterbacks, including Deshaun Watson, Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco, and now Dillon Gabriel. But if and when he does. His eventual rise might not just rewrite his draft narrative—it could expose the very same disconnect Brandt pointed out.
The post Ex-NFL Exec Confirms ‘Disconnect’ Between Shedeur Sanders & NFL Teams as Giants Star Criticizes QB’s Fall appeared first on EssentiallySports.
