Shedeur Sanders NFL Draft slide: Stephen A. Smith blames media for fall, Marcus Spears fires back

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, once considered a potential top five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, is still available as Round 2 gets underway on Friday. Sanders went unselected in Thursday’s Round 1, a stunning occurrence to Stephen A. Smith.

Smith doesn’t think that Sanders’ draft day fall had only to do with his on-field ability. Speaking on ESPN‘s “First Take,” Smith cited the media’s coverage of him, in which several anonymous league execs and coaches were quoted as to saying Sanders was “arrogant,” among other things. Smith also believes teams did not want to deal with Shedeur Sanders’ dad, Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders.

Stephen A. Smith questions why Shedeur Sanders fell out of first round

“What the media was saying and what was reported. The anonymous stuff that was being thrown out there. What do they say about Shedeur Sanders? All of a sudden, he shows up at the Scouting Combine and he doesn’t work out. All of the meetings, it was the arrogance and all of the stuff. I’m saying forget all of that,” Smith said Friday. “I believe that the biggest issue in all of this was Prime Time Deion Sanders and the thought of having to deal with him. I just read something this morning where one of the things that folks had a concern about was were they really getting the truth out of the program. Because when you go to a program, you ask about a particular player, and you can get all the intel.

“But in this particular instance because he was being coached by his dad, folks weren’t confident they were getting the right, accurate information about him. It’s hard for me to sit here today and to watch a dude that was once projected to be one of the top two picks potentially in the draft to drop completely out of the first round to completely ignore all those reports that had come out about him leading into the draft. … That moment that was supposed to occur last night, that was supposed to exist last night, if you think that I’m gonna sit here and assume that was strictly an evaluation of his football skills alone that led to him falling out the entire first round without his father having an impact, I don’t buy that.”

Shedeur Sanders still on the board in 2025 NFL Draft

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. Sanders’ fall out of the first-round came despite being regarded as one of the top quarterbacks at the collegiate level last season.

But Sanders isn’t the first expected first round pick to drop. Back in 1995, Warren Sapp fell due to reports coming out that he failed multiple drug tests. Sapp still went 12th overall. When it comes to Sanders, Marcus Spears feels he ultimately would have been taken in the first round if a team felt he was worthy of the selection, despite any possible “baggage.” He pushed back on Smith and others’ “narrative” that any of the things said about him leading up to the draft caused his draft day slide.

“Players drop. … We are reserving the fact that Shedeur Sanders dropped out of the first round and people want to create this conversation like it had something to do with his attitude or had something to do with Prime,” Spears said. “Yes, that can cause you to drop, but if you got crazy talent, some team would have taken him in the first round if they felt like, ‘I don’t care.’ There are GMs, there are coaches who say, ‘I know there’s baggage, I don’t see the talent for us to come and get him based on the things that’s been said.’

“I have not heard anyone on this network say that Shedeur Sanders is not a good quarterback. But we got to stop with this narrative like the things that were said about him caused him to not get taken in the first round and he had this immediate immense elite talent that these other guys had.”

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