The talk of the 2025 NFL Draft was not that of no.1 pick Cam Ward who was taken by the Tennessee Titans. Instead, it was about the slide of quarterback who did not even get picked until the fifth-round by the Cleveland Browns and that was Shedeur Sanders.
Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, and Mel Kiper Jr were examples of media members who could not let go of the fact that Sanders had not been drafted. Also, it was also all over social media as well with some believing that the reason it took so long for him to get taken was for non-football related reasons, yet that is not the case.
Sanders was 1-7 against ranked teams in his two years for the Colorado Buffaloes. Overall record was only 13-12. His numbers overall were impressive with 7,364 yards passing, a completion percentage of 71.8, 64 touchdowns to 13 interceptions, and in 2024 finishing eighth in Heisman voting.
Yet there were bad losses including to Stanford, Washington State, Nebraska, and Kansas.
Washington State was the last game of the 2023 season. Sanders did leave in the second quarter due to injury and at the point Colorado was already trailing 42-14 to a team that was 4-7.
Against the ranked teams, Sanders picked apart the defense of No.17 TCU, which was not surprising to anyone considering Sonny Dykes was the head coach. That was the aforementioned only win against a ranked team.
TCU did not finish the season ranked though.
When facing No.10 Oregon it was a different story and Colorado got blown out 42-6. A week later, it was much more competitive against No.8 USC in a 48-41 loss. A few weeks later lost 28-16 to UCLA, then lost to No.16 Oregon State 26-19, and No.21 Arizona 34-31. In 2024, the Buffaloes faced only two ranked teams. Both resulted in losses, 31-28 to Kansas State and blown out by BYU 36-14.
Overall against ranked opponents Sanders he completed 214 passes on 305 attempts, completed 70.1 percent of his passes, threw for 2,360 yards, 19 touchdowns to 4 interceptions, and was sacked 38 times. Four times he was held under 250 yards passing. It also has been noted that Sanders takes big sacks instead of getting rid of the football.
As the 2025 NFL Draft approached Sanders did not participate in the Senior Bowl, opted out of the Shrine Bowl, and did not participate in the on-field drills at the NFL combine. There are also reports that he did not interview particularly well.
Then there is that Sanders is the son of Deion Sanders, a NFL Hall of Famer. Which meant he got plenty of attention from the sports media world, which makes him highly overrated. If he were not the son of a legendary football player, his slide in the draft would not have become such a big deal.