Leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft, the Colorado quarterback was considered one of the top picks for weeks. As the weeks got closer to draft day, it became clear that Cam Ward was going to be the number one pick. Then, as did New Orleans, the question became where Sanders would go.
The New York Giants and the New Orleans Saints needed quarterbacks, but both teams passed, and the Giants did a lot of work on Sanders leading up to the draft. Then came the Pittsburgh Steelers at pick 21, and they passed on Sanders, and they needed a young franchise quarterback. That’s when I knew something was up because for the Steelers to pass up a talent like Sanders and need a quarterback badly, they must know something.
Then, the Giants traded back into the first round to take Jaxon Dart. Then, in the second and third rounds, Tyler Shough and Dillon Gabriel were drafted. No offense to Gabriel, but Sanders is a more talented prospect. Gariel was considered by many a late-round draft pick to possibly go undrafted, and the Cleveland Browns took him in the third round before ironically taking him in the fifth round, one pick after the Miami Dolphins.
I admit that part of me wanted to see the Dolphins take a chance on Sanders in the 5th round because they needed to take a young quarterback to develop and possibly become the backup. Who knows, maybe even take over if something happened to starter Tua Tagovailoa.
After the draft, there were a lot of questions as to why Sanders slipped. It was the talk of the draft. Then I read an article in the Miami Herald written by Omar Kelly, and it talked about how it was reported that Sanders came to his interviews unprepared for NFL teams, was very arrogant, and questioned the teams’ leadership. That’s disrespectful to every NFL team, and your first impressions are your lasting impressions on teams. Obviously, teams around the NFL felt the same way. The Dolphins can’t take a chance on a player like that, especially considering what has been happening to star wide receiver Tyreek Hill. With him, off and on about wanting to get traded, refusing to play in the season finale last year, his off-the-field antics, etc. The Dolphins are stuck with him for at least one more year because of his contract, so the Dolphins could draft Sanders if he was going to be disrespectful.
Sanders is a talented quarterback and gets it from his father, Deion Sanders, who was brash, confident, and cocky, but he had respect for the NFL game and he didn’t rub teams the wrong way like his son did otherwise he would have been a top pick in the 1989 draft. I know people felt that Deion might have some influence on where his son went to play and might have followed him around, which I don’t believe.
Having a say in where you don’t want your son to play wouldn’t be the first time that would have happened. John Elway‘s dad, Jack Elway, didn’t feel John would prosper with the then-Baltimore Colts in 1983, and he ended up getting drafted by the Colts but was eventually traded to the Denver Broncos. In 2004, Archie Manning didn’t want to see his son, Eli, get drafted by the then San Diego Charger,s and he got drafted by them, but traded to the Giants so that wouldn’t be a precedent.
I believe Deion would want his son to build his own legacy and grow on his own so I wouldn’t have been worried about that.
However, the sense of entitlement, if true according to reports, is what really would turn me off. The Dolphins need players who want to play, get better, appreciate their opportunities, and not take things for granted. Shedeur seems to be a young player who feels entitled. The NFL is an opportunity, not an entitlement.
I really hope Shedeur Sanders learns from this draft experience and uses it as a motivation to do well and grow up to become the best player he can be, but the Dolphins couldn’t take that chance and they shouldn’t. Time will tell if Shedeur Sanders is as good as he thinks. I wish him the best.
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