Once touted as the consensus No.1 prospect in this year’s NFL draft, nobody really saw Shedeur Sanders falling to the fifth round. Although there were some talks of him being picked late in the first round, the 5th round was way too shocking. 5 QBs were picked ahead of Shedeur. Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough, Jalen Milroe, and his now teammate at Cleveland, Dillon Gabriel, were all called before Sanders. However, Sanders, who set single-season records for passing yards, completions, attempts, TDs, and completion percentage last year for Colorado, got ignored round after round. Well, a plausible reason behind Sanders’ humiliating draft slide may be tied to his father, Deion.
To be honest, several reasons are being linked to Sanders falling to the 5th round. His athleticism and arm strength were heavily scrutinised after the NFL combine. And his weakness in throwing deep balls was touted as a major factor behind NFL teams’ lack of interest in him. Sanders only completed 47% of his passes beyond 20 yards. Meanwhile, 68% of his passes were between 10-19 yards last season. So, he was more of a low-risk taker who preferred shorter routes. Yet another reason that probably forced franchises to look beyond Sanders was his lack of mobility.
Sanders was sacked a whopping 94 times in his two seasons with Colorado, the most in the whole FBS within the same period. Later, it was also revealed that Sanders gave the worst possible interviews to franchises. After the
Giants picked
Jaxson Dart in the first round, the Ringer reported it was due to his poor attitude during an interview with them. So, there were a lot of concerns with Sanders. But the most glaring of them all was revealed by Cam Heyward.
Heyward’s Steelers also blatantly ignored Sanders whenever it was their turn to pick. Even though they didn’t have a proper starting QB, the Steelers preferred other options than Sanders. Before the
Browns eventually picked Shedeur, the Steelers were on the clock three times. First, they opted for
Derrick Harmon, then
Kaleb Johnson and finally
Jack Sawyer. Considering how everything unfolded in this draft, Heyward, on his “Not Just Football” podcast,
said it was due to a lack of a traditional agent.“I think a lot of people have not given him the information he deserves. One thing about having an agent that’s what they’re used for to help mitigate where you’re going to go. Talk to teams to have that communication,” Heyward quipped. Sanders didn’t have a certified NFL agent. His Hall of Fame father, Deion, was his impromptu agent. Maybe having a proper agent could have helped Shedeur get a sniff about his draft stock. Given Deion’s intimidating nature and strong presence, several franchises didn’t want to talk to him.
Even Sanders’ older brother,
Shilo, said during their live stream on Twitch,
“Dad was our agent. But that hasn’t been working too good. So today I had to sign with an agent.” Shilo ended up signing with powerful NFL agent
Drew Rosenhaus. And after going undrafted, he got picked by the
Buccaneers as a free agent. At the end, the two Sanders brothers may have found a team, but amidst all the chaos, they had to deal with an amateurish prank call.
Cam Heyward’s strong verdict on Jeff Ulbrich’s son after draft day prank call
It was still the second round, and the Saints were on the clock with their 40th overall pick. That’s when Shedeur got a call on a number that was only given to the NFL. After he picked it up, the prank caller identified himself as the Saints’ GM, Mickey Loomis. Sanders thought his wait was finally over. But after saying they would pick him, the prankster hung up the call, saying he would have to wait a bit longer. Later, after a lot of investigation, it was revealed that Jeff Ulbrich’s son, Jax, was behind the prank. Although it wasn’t he who made the call, Jax was the one who leaked Sanders’ number.
The Falcons on Sunday released a statement saying, Jax “unintentionally came across the draft contact phone number for Shedeur Sanders off an open iPad while visiting his parent’s home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call.” Well, Jax did publicly apologize later, while Jeff said he was unaware of the prank. Heyward refused to acknowledge the prank pulled on Shedeur. “I think prank calling a player in the middle of the most important thing in life that’s not cool,” Heyward said in his podcast.
Even Sanders said it was indeed a childish act. His new head coach Kevin Stefanski also labelled those pranksters “moron.” The issue may be resolved for now with the Falcons, Jeff, and his son apologizing. But the NFL is still expected to look into the matter so that something like this doesn’t happen again.
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