Hours before the NFL Draft began on Thursday, Shedeur Sanders expressed his readiness. "I’m built for whatever today may bring," the quarterback prospect tweeted. After the first round ended without a team picking Sanders, the gag wrote itself: What about tomorrow? When nobody selected him in the second or third rounds on Friday, and a prank caller interrupted his live-streamed draft party to deliver false hope, it all became a bit sad.
In one word, Shedeur Sanders's draft experience was mortifying. Riveting? Humiliating? ESPN analyst Mel Kiper, who had the Colorado QB as No. 5 on his overall rankings, called it "disgusting," but he would think that, since by association it made Mel Kiper look bad. If you spotted me a few more words, I'd describe it as "an achievement in secondhand embarrassment." When Howard Schultz's son is defending your honor online out of some kind of nepotic allyship, you're in a rough spot.
As expected, the Tennessee Titans took Cam Ward first overall, resolving the issues for one QB-needy franchise. Others were content to find alternatives to Sanders. The New York Giants went with Jaxson Dart at No. 25. When the New Orleans Saints took 25-year-old Tyler Shough in the second round, that felt a bit strange, although it perhaps said more about the Saints' front office than it did Sanders. QBs Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel went in the third round, and that led to confusion more than anything.
Somewhere in the middle of the fourth round on Saturday, it began to feel preferable for Sanders if he weren't drafted at all, for him to instead find a relatively better contract and team fit as a UDFA. Then, like the punchline to a cosmic joke, the Cleveland Browns—who had already drafted Gabriel—took Sanders in the fifth round, No. 144 overall.
So what the hell happened? Depending on which mock draft you consulted—all of them combined about as valuable as a fart in a paper bag—the range of outcomes for Sanders went anywhere from "top five" to "second round." There wasn't any kind of draft-day surprise like Laremy Tunsil's gas-mask bong, but the hype around Sanders cooled off in recent weeks, and he declined an invite to the green room in Green Bay so that he could have his own custom party at home. The beginning of an explanation might be found in NFL insider Tom Pelissero's draft rankings:
One longtime NFL assistant coach said his time with Sanders was "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." Said one longtime AFC executive: "It didn't go great in our interview. He wants to dictate what he's going to do and what's best for him. He makes you feel small." Even some of Sanders' fans expressed disappointment he didn't take a bigger step forward as a senior. "I liked him the year before," an NFC GM said. "They did change coordinators. It just felt different. It felt less athletic, less arm talent -- everything felt less. If you're talking about this year's tape versus (Jaxson) Dart and Shedeur, I don't think it was particularly close."
As a general rule, anything an anonymous scout says is calculated. They might ding a prospect to improve the chances of him falling to their team. They might just be stupid. For instance, some scouts in 2018 reportedly wanted Lamar Jackson to work out as a wide receiver. Given where Sanders ultimately fell, though, these comments might not have been a smokescreen. In reading Pelissero's full profile, scouts saw passing ability and potential in Sanders, but found it worrisome that he was always coached by his dad and also could throw his own teammates under the bus. The NFL historically isn't averse to coaches' sons, and yet something about being Deion's kid added the dreaded specter of distraction for any team.
It's impossible to say where Sanders should have gone, because he hasn't played an NFL snap yet, but in any case he's now with a team that runs through signal-callers like Kleenex. Sanders and Gabriel fill a fascinating (or horrifying) QB room along with Kenny Pickett, 40-year-old Joe Flacco, and the noxious presence of a recuperating Deshaun Watson. Shedeur Sanders might be built for whatever the day brings, but playing for the Cleveland Browns requires a different kind of preparation altogether.
