The National Football League (NFL) is an ever-evolving sports league providing entertainment to millions across America. From the high school level to the pro level, football is America’s most popular sport, and the NFL draft is where players’ dreams come to fruition. Teams select new players to replenish the older ones and draft positional needs to make sure the entire team is strong. The draft had a consensus top three quarterback in Shedeur Sanders, but what happened in the real draft went differently. The 2025 NFL draft stood out for one main reason: the prominent Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders went undrafted until the fifth round, even while he was projected to be a top first round pick.
The NFL divides the draft into rounds, with the teams’ draft picks being ordered from worst record to playoff teams, with the most recent Super Bowl winner picks last. Coming into the draft, Sanders was widely considered the second best quarterback in the class. It was therefore shocking when he fell nearly four rounds, with 143 players being selected before him. Shedeur Sanders’s fall to the fifth round was mainly because of his character concerns and his overratedness as a prospect in the first place, which would eventually hurt his draft value.
Shedeur Sanders came into the draft with several character concerns, highlighted by some of his interviews. He was touted as arrogant and entitled throughout the draft process.
“Sanders tanked some interviews to not end up with certain teams,” explained sophomore Pranav Prasath. “There was additional uneasiness because his father said he would not let Shedeur play for certain teams.”
Sanders’s lack of willingness to cooperate in the draft process likely hurt his draft value to teams. His lack of flexibility likely hurt his value for teams he may have genuinely been interested in, dropping his value further. According to Bleacher Report, Sanders came off to interviewers as “arrogant and entitled,” which may have put off teams originally interested in him. Sanders’s lack of cooperation with the draft process, along with his father’s unwillingness to send his son to certain teams may have plummeted his draft value past the first round, where he was picked to be drafted.
Teams are always looking for talent, but they need to maintain a locker room culture that fosters growth and companionship amongst team members. Sanders’s overconfidence and cockiness likely came off as entitled and arrogant to teams and showed that he may not be a fit personality-wise for most teams.
Coupled with arguments of nepotism, there are clear reasons why Sanders had such a draft slide. Sanders was already overrated as a prospect before his character concerns, primarily because of his existing legacy and connections at Colorado.
“Some factors that influenced his overranking were his last name for being the son of a Hall of Famer and his pairing with Travis Hunter,” explained Prasath. “They raised his profile a little higher than it should’ve been.”
Sanders is the son of Deion Sanders, a two-time Super Bowl winning defensive player in the Hall of Fame. His name has been attached to Shedeur since youth football, as Deion Sanders has been the coach of Shedeur’s teams throughout his football career. The value that Deion Sanders’s name has in NFL conversation may have propelled Shedeur Sanders to a higher ceiling and floor than he truly had in mock drafts and projections that are meant to show what viewers the draft can look like. However, his imperfections and exaggerated value showed through in the real draft.
In addition to being attached with his father through both familial and professional means, Sanders also played with Travis Hunter, a prolific draft prospect that went number two overall and won the 2024-2025 Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the best college football player of the year. Him playing with a generational talent like Hunter put Sanders into an echelon he has not yet reached.
Shedeur Sanders’s fall from the first to fifth round in the 2025 NFL Draft has been one of the most surprising turns in recent NFL history. Both his character concerns and prolific connections ended up tanking his draft value until he was selected with the 144th pick by the Cleveland Browns. While Sanders has already faced a monumental setback in his young career, it remains to be seen whether he can succeed despite the adversity already presented to him.
