If you watched the 2025 NFL Draft, you are likely well aware that Mel Kiper Jr. was outraged throughout the vast majority of the event as teams continuously passed on Shedeur Sanders. While most found Kiper’s passion as a bit over the top and repetitive, his ESPN colleague Michael Wilbon believes that he was spot on in his assessment.
Wilbon discussed Sanders’ historic draft slide on Monday’s edition of Pardon the Interruption, sharing Kiper’s opinion that the only explanation for him falling as far as he did was that there was some personal vendetta from organizations in the NFL towards the Sanders family.
“Shedeur Sanders being on that board in the fifth round was a joke,” said Wilbon. “It’s a travesty. I’m not saying he has to go in the first. But don’t tell me that everybody in the draft is better than Shedeur Sanders. Because I’ve watched the damn games. I’ve watched the Colorado games. I don’t just need to just review film and take the scouts’ word for it. And even if we take their word for it, they all had him ranked much, much, much higher than this. Mel Kiper got this right when he said this was personal. This is not about football. This was personal. Because people looked at Shedeur Sanders for a lot of reasons.
“In different rounds, different teams looked at him differently. And they said, ‘We find him undesirable. We don’t want him.’ It is personal. And you know what happens in the NFL, where the word distraction is a four-letter word, and every coach and every executive can utter (the word) distraction. They just don’t have the guts ever in the NFL to come out and say that someone is a distraction. And they didn’t want the distraction that they think Shedeur Sanders and the entire Sanders family was going to become. They don’t have the stones in the NFL to ever say that out loud. So they hide behind other garbage. It was personal, and it was awkward to watch.”
“Shedeur Sanders being on that board in the fifth round was a joke. It’s a travesty… Don’t tell me that everybody in the draft is better than Shedeur Sanders, because I watched the damn games… Mel Kiper got this right when he said later this is personal…” – Michael Wilbon pic.twitter.com/ZLE75Ujayk
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 28, 2025
Based on talent alone, it is hard to argue that Sanders deserved to be a fifth-round pick. But, as Wilbon alluded to, there was likely more at play, such as the reports ahead of the draft that Sanders was far from impressive during pre-draft meetings with teams.
Add in the potential headache that comes along with Sanders, most notably the influence that Deion Sanders may have on his son’s career, and it’s easy to see why teams wouldn’t be all that interested in handing the reins over to Shedeur.
Whether it’s fair or not, Sanders’ baggage cost him a ton of money in the 2025 NFL Draft. Moving forward, it will be up to him to recoup that money by impressing the Browns coaching staff, earning the starting job in Cleveland, and securing a second deal in the NFL.
