NFL Exec Feels Shedeur Sanders Met with Teams Like a Recruiting Trip, Not Interview

In the wake of his surprising fall to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft, details about Shedeur Sanders' pre-draft process have started to come out explaining why he lasted as long as he did.

On the latest episode of the Scoop City podcast (starts at 10:10 mark), The Athletic's Dianna Russini said one NFL executive said they believe Sanders "approached these visits with teams as a recruiting trip versus a job interview."

Russini explained the differences between the two approaches range from things like how you carry yourself in a meeting with a team, to the questions a player is asking the team and how the player answers questions from the team, to how the player prepares for the meeting.

There had been talk leading up to and during the draft that some teams were turned off by the way Sanders approached his interviews.

The Ringer's Todd McShay said on his podcast after the first round of the draft that Sanders wasn't in play for the New York Giants at No. 3 overall because they felt like his "preparation wasn't there" when head coach Brian Daboll tried to go over an install package and Sanders "didn't like it" when they called him out on it.

CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones said on Saturday that Sanders "sandbagged" some of his pre-draft interviews and rubbed some teams the wrong way at the NFL scouting combine (starts at 2:40 mark).

Daboll did say after the first round the Giants "had good meetings with all the guys that came in here on 30 visits" when asked about McShay's note on Sanders.

Sanders wound up coming off the board at No. 144 overall to the Cleveland Browns. He was the sixth quarterback selected and second taken by the Browns, after Dillon Gabriel in the third round (No. 94 overall).

It was a stunning turn of events for a quarterback that was still being projected as a late-first-round pick in the final days leading up to the draft.

Ultimately, all that matters for Sanders now is getting into camp and competing with the other Browns quarterbacks for an opportunity to potentially start at some point this season.

If Sanders ends up being a success in the NFL, we will all look back at his draft fall wondering why it happened in the first place.