The football universe in America was in a collective state of shock after Shedeur Sanders failed to get drafted in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. Nobody expected it to take five rounds and three days until the Cleveland Browns snatched him from oblivion Saturday, trading up to get him after a staggering 143 other players were picked.
Patrick Mahomes, one of the marquee players of the league, was speechless after every team in the NFL passed on the sure-fire star multiple times following day 2 of the football extravaganza in Green Bay, Wis.
Mahomes calls it ‘crazy’
The three-time Super Bowl winner summarized the sentiments of many when he took to social media to utter a one-word response to the unfathomable and inexplicable: that it seemed the legendary Deion Sanders’ son might not get drafted to play professional football. But that was before the Browns, who already have the highly paid Deshaun Watson at QB, baffled everybody by deciding he needed a well-known backup to back up the other QB they had already drafted in the third round with the No. 94 pick, former Oregon star Dillon Gabriel.
Maybe somebody’s going to get traded. Can anybody make this make sense of this precarious pitch into the preposterous?
“Crazy,” is all Mahomes managed to mutter.
A multiplicity of rationales and conspiracy theories have been hatched by pundits and the public to try to explain why a formerly high-draft prospect dropped like few other players in NFL history.
The college and pro football world are speechless
Others were also dumbfounded by this unprecedented happenstance.
Adam Schefter, a Hall of Fame-caliber reporter and insider for ESPN, was jarred to the core on why Sanders, 23, was so unattractive to NFL teams. Moreover, several less qualified quarterbacks were drafted ahead of Sander, who was the sixth signal-caller taken.
“We’ve got an unprecedented slide, and everybody’s trying to figure out exactly how this can be,” Schefter began. “And all we can say is what we’re hearing. We’re hearing Shedeur didn’t interview well. We’re hearing that teams have different preferences. But it’s still hard to imagine, it’s inconceivable,” he said.
“The Seattle Seahawks used the pick that they got back from the Raiders for Geno Smith on Jalen Milroe,” Schefter continued. “The Browns have gone for Dillon Gabriel. In what universe did anybody ever expect Dillon Gabriel to go ahead of Shedeur Sanders?”
Nick Saban, the most successful head coach in college football history with seven championships with the Alabama Crimson Tide, and another with Louisiana State University, said Sanders must’ve gotten a bad rap.
“People start talking and behind the scenes they create a reputation for somebody that may not even be what their reputation is but everybody starts agreeing. And everybody starts believing it,” Saban said. “I don’t think you should do that. You should look at what you see in a guy.”
Some try to explain what is going on
Marcellus Wiley, who attained fame for going from Compton to the Ivy League (Columbia University) and into the NFL before striking gold at ESPN and Fox Sports, tries to make sense of the seemingly nonsensical. He speaks to football fans on his “That dude TV” podcast.
