Robert Griffin III comes to Shedeur Sanders’ defense after drop out of first round in NFL Draft
Shedeur Sanders never expected he would still be on the board as Round 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft gets underway on Friday. But that’s reality; the Colorado quarterback went unselected in Thursday’s Round 1.
To many, this was a surprise. At one point throughout the evaluation process, he looked destined to be a top five pick and at the very least, a surefire first-round pick. It didn’t happen, and Robert Griffin III doesn’t understand why.
“I’m watching the draft and I’m seeing a bunch of people talking about ‘Shedeur’s not getting drafted because he doesn’t have anything special. There’s nothing special to him.’ When I hear someone say that I just know they have not watched any of this man’s film — any of it,” Griffin said.
“If you actually watch his film from a quarterback’s eye, from a coach’s eye, you know that he has something special. He makes off schedule plays, he uses his feet effectively, he can play from the pocket, he has the rhythm and timing of an NFL quarterback. Those are all things that are special.”
Shedeur Sanders experiences draft day slide
The Tennessee Titans selected Miami quarterback Cam Ward at No. 1 overall. Another quarterback wasn’t drafted until the Giants traded up to take Ole Miss signal caller Jaxson Dart No. 25 overall. His fall out of the first-round comes despite being regarded as one of the top quarterbacks at the collegiate level last season.
As a senior in 2024, Sanders threw for a career-best 4,134 yards on an impressive 74% completion percentage to go along with 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Spending the last two seasons playing for the Buffaloes, he accounted for 72 total touchdowns.
So, why did the quarterback-needy teams pass on Sanders? Griffin wonders if this was the NFL‘s way of “punishing” him for being a young quarterback with confidence.
“Most of all at quarterback you need confidence,” Griffin said. “So, when I’m seeing him drop, I’m like, why are we punishing this young man because he’s got confidence? Why are we punishing him because he went to Jackson State to an HBCU and turned it around? Why are we punishing him because he went to Colorado and turned it around? Is it because of his dad? Y’all that mad that he got his number retired?
“We can have a conversation about whether you think he’s worth this pick or that pick. But we’re not just gonna sit up there and lie about the young man and say he has nothing special. Everything the kid has done has been special.”
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