NFL GM: Shedeur Sanders in Same Tier as Milroe, Dart, Ewers; Gap After QB1 Cam Ward

There is always one big-name player during draft season that sees his stock take a surprising hit. This year, that player appears to be Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

During this weekend's NFL Scouting Combine, the buzz continued to suggest that Cam Ward is the distinct QB1 in this draft class.

As SNY's Connor Hughes wrote Sunday, "SNY talked to scouts, general managers, executives, head coaches, assistant coaches and agents at the NFL combine. Not one had Sanders as a better quarterback prospect than Ward. The New York Giants really would be on an island of their own if they moved up for the Colorado passer. One general manager actually felt it was Ward, a gap, then Quinn Ewers/Jaxson Dart/Jalen Milroe/Sanders, with very little separating the latter four."

While the order after Ward will vary between evaluators, it appears that Sanders is pretty firmly out of the QB1 conversation:

"He's a game manager," an AFC West area scout told ESPN's Matt Miller regarding Sanders. "His ceiling is Jared Goff, and that's if he gets in a scheme that speeds up his decision-making."

Obviously, draft season is full of smoke screens, so it can be tough to know what's real and what is noise. But a consensus has seemed to form around Ward as the definitive QB1, with Sanders somewhere in the pack that follows.