NFL Exec Says Media Was 'Lagging' on Shedeur Sanders Not Being a 1st-Round Prospect

There was clearly a disconnect between how Shedeur Sanders was viewed as a prospect leading up to the 2025 NFL draft and where he ended up going in the fifth round, and one NFL talent evaluator believes the media was working from behind.

"Maybe the [New York] Giants came to the conclusion like the rest of us that Sanders is a second-round pick," the evaluator told Mike Sando of The Athletic.

"I bristle at everyone saying they are smearing his name. Everyone has caught up to the evaluation that he is not a first-round prospect. The media guys are lagging behind the evaluations, so there has to be a reason."

Sanders was seen as a surefire first-rounder for months leading up to the draft and even a candidate to be the No. 1 overall pick during the college football season until Cam Ward started to separate himself.

Still, there were at least some signs the Colorado product wouldn't be as early of a pick as once thought as the draft approached. One NFL coach told Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated that Sanders would have been a sixth-round pick if he weren't the son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.

"He doesn't play with good feet, he's late on stuff, he has an average arm," the coach said. "His accuracy is O.K., but he has no timing, no anticipation. He flashes some throws, but he's an average player, not a great athlete. Even if you watch his pro day, there's no timing or rhythm. He takes extra hitches."

Sanders' slide was the biggest storyline in the draft, especially after the Giants selected Jaxson Dart instead of him in the first round.

The Colorado product's fall to the fifth round also led to plenty of discourse about what happened and what went wrong. Along those lines, CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones (2:38 mark) reported that the signal-caller "more or less sandbagged" interviews with teams he didn't want to go to, which "rubbed some teams the wrong way."

Even the Cleveland Browns being the team to take him was somewhat of a surprise, as they had just selected Oregon's Dillon Gabriel in the third round and have a crowded quarterback room with an injured Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett in addition to the rookies.

Ultimately, Sanders will have the opportunity to prove that the early prognostications of him being a first-round pick were the correct ones, but it seems like there is at least some belief within the league that the media overrated him as a prospect.