Shedeur Sanders treated draft process like he was being \

USA Today

03-05-2025

Shedeur Sanders treated draft process like he was being "recruited" says one NFL GM
Much has been made about why Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round in the NFL draft, and there are likely several reasons.
Many reports surfaced following the draft that Sanders did not take the pre-draft process seriously and mishandled interviews. After speaking with an unspecified NFL general manager, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk elaborated on those reports this week.
"Sanders, in the assessment of the general manager, treated the pre-draft process as if he was being 'recruited,' not as if he was being 'interviewed,'" Florio wrote.
The unnamed general manager makes the fascinating point that perhaps Sanders was evaluating NFL teams to see if they were the right fit for him, instead of attempting to make himself more appealing to the organization.
If true, Sanders' pre-draft plan was severely flawed. Draft prospects, especially those lacking elite talent like Sanders, need to make themselves as "draftable" as possible and, more often than not, do not have the leeway to "choose" their NFL home. This particular general manager thought that was the case, and it hindered Sanders' draft stock.
Florio also suggests that Sanders's lack of an agent contributed to his draft slide.
"The agent, whoever it may have been, could have explained to Shedeur that ... NFL teams that have the power to draft players are far less concerned about trying to make the player want the team and far more concerned about trying to figure out whether the team wants the player," Florio stated.
We likely won't know the whole story about the Shedeur Sanders draft slide, but Florio provides some interesting context on why teams might have passed on the Colorado quarterback.
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