Prank callers obtained Shadeur Sanders’ phone number recently, rang him up, and pretended to be with the New Orleans Saints. Their closing, viral joke proved prophetic: “You’re gonna have to wait a while.”
The son of NFL legend Deion Sanders and University of Colorado quarterback is the most famous person available to pro team this weekend in the NFL draft. But somehow, as of press time, zero of 32 teams have decided to hire him.
UPDATE, 3:14pm CT, April 26, 2025: Sanders was drafted by the Cleveland Browns Saturday afternoon in Round 5. The Browns passed on him six times.
On paper, this is a shock. He is a good player in a weak class at his position. His ceiling is high as a prospect. Less-talented QBs have been chosen ahead of him.
So what the heck is going on? You’d think he had a looming scandal that only professional teams had inside intel about.
Sometimes the simplest answer is the easiest one.
Why did Shadeur Sanders’ NFL stock fall?
It sure seems like NFL decision-makers simply…don’t like him as a person. They see him as entitled and not worth the media circus that comes with bringing aboard a nepo baby.
“He turned off teams with his attitude,” NFL draft expert Todd McShay said on his podcast. He added that Sanders’ job interviews with three NFL teams “did not go smoothly.”
Writer Bill Simmons called it “irrational confidence,” applicable in most cases to men in sports who think they’re more athletic than they are and become delusional enough to take, say, a reckless 3-pointer.
As McShay added in his analysis, Sanders is not talented enough to warrant the fanfare he put on himself, hosting elaborate draft parties. And online, football fans were all too happy to make memes, trash the 23-year-old, and revel in the schadenfreude.
“A new pope might be selected before Shadeur Sanders,” a Twitter user riffed late Friday.
“Just copped a brand-new Shadeur Sanders jersey,” another said, holding a shirt that reads: “LinkedIn.”
But what’s really going on with Shadeur Sanders?
Sanders and his handlers made one big mistake: Narrowing their employer search.
“It is a surprise he is still on the board on Day 3,” NFL reporter Tom Pelissero said on NFL Network Saturday morning. “[Sanders] proceeded as if he was dictating to clubs where he was going to go, rather than how the draft words: The other way around.”
In the lead-up to the draft, Pelissero said, Sanders made unconventional choices. He skipped the Senior Bowl and opted for the East-West Shrine Bowl. He didn’t practice at this showcase game. His interviews were apparently brazen and shocking to NFL executives.
“Made them feel small,” Pelissero added.
The verdict by the entire league was clear: It would not be easy for Sanders, who has been coached by his dad through college, “playing for the first time for somebody who was not his father.” (For the uninitiated, father Deion is the head coach at the University of Colorado.)
READ MORE: Shadeur Sanders memes take over the NFL draft
‘Talkin’… on Instagram’
As Sanders’ draft stock slipped Thursday and into Saturday, users resurfaced old clips of his collegiate career. Like the time he refused to shake hands with opponents after a win, calling out Colorado State’s rival QB for apparently disrespecting him on Instagram instead of saying, you know, “good game.”
In a resurfaced interview from the NFL Combine, Sanders was defiant.
“You know who my dad is?” he said to reporters, saying that his father was similarly persecuted for being flashy. “It should be no question why an NFL franchise should pick me.”
Sanders added: “It’s almost normal. Without people hating on us, it’s not normal.”
As of press time, it’s a calamity on the sports internet where even an innocent user apparently named Shadeur Smith from Kellyville, Australia, is catching the ire of Stephen A. Smith, who erroneously tagged him in a disappointing tweet about Sanders.
“In a different way, this is Kaepernick all over again… being kept out,” Smith wrote.
QB is always a controversial position. Just look at the New York Giants, who just drafted one from Ole Miss. No one seems to agree whether or not this is a good idea, either.
Correction: Sanders was drafted in Round 5.
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