NFL Insider Says Execs Were 'Scared to Give Their Honest Opinion' of Shedeur Sanders

Many are still trying to figure out what caused quarterback Shedeur Sanders to fall to the Cleveland Browns as a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, but one insider offered some insight.

During Monday's episode of Get Up, ESPN's Dan Graziano revealed that he heard from multiple people that evaluators didn't feel comfortable disclosing their true opinions on Sanders during the lead-up to the draft, which caused the overblown projections of him being a potential first-round pick.

"Texting with a lot of people Saturday morning on the topic of why this is happening that he was still available, I had a couple of people say to me to the point about media, you guys weren't getting a complete picture," Graziano explained. "The theory was that people inside these buildings were kind of scared to give their honest opinion of him because of the potential for criticism, the potential of Deion, and everything that's around Shedeur, to kind of come down on them."

As the son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, Shedeur garners a ton of attention that could be distracting, but many felt that his stats at Colorado were impressive enough to make him a first-round pick. He ended up being the sixth quarterback off the board. The Browns even selected Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the third round before making the questionable decision to add him as a second rookie quarterback two rounds later.

Graziano added that teams seemed content to pass on Sanders because there was an expectation that another franchise would take the risk.

"So, I think we might've gotten some bad information in terms of how teams looked at him, but I think at some point Friday night into Saturday it started to snowball where teams are kind of sitting back and thinking, 'Well somebody else will probably take him,'" Graziano said.