Stephen A. Smith Says Some NFL Owners Told Teams Not to Draft Shedeur Sanders

There were reportedly owners at the NFL draft who made it clear that they didn't want Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders on their franchise.

"I know of owners who went to their personnel in the draft room [and said], 'You're not drafting him.' That's what I was told," Stephen A. Smith said on Tuesday's First Take (7:24 mark). "I've been a reporter for 30 years, that's what I was told."

Smith's report tracks logically, given that Sanders—who most draft pundits believed would be selected in either the first or second round—dropped all the way to the fifth round before the Cleveland Browns ended his slide.

Once teams in need of a starting option went a different route, Sanders' slide was probably inevitable. He would have been an incredibly high-profile backup and created a potential media and fan frenzy if their incumbent starter struggled even in the slightest.

Instead, Sanders will have the chance to win the starting job in Cleveland, where he'll be competing with veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel. It promises to be a bloated and bizarre quarterback competition, but Sanders has the opportunity in Cleveland to prove that the rest of the NFL made a mistake in letting him drop to the fifth round.