How a Shedeur Sanders prank call forced significant changes to NFL Draft

Cleveland Browns QB Shedeur Sanders is now settling in preparing for his second season in the NFL. 

On Tuesday, Sanders took the majority of first team reps as Cleveland held their first session of voluntary OTAs, with Deshaun Watson also getting reps with the starters. 

But last year at this time, Sanders —who nearly every NFL talent evaluator had pegged as a first round pick — was prepping for the draft. 

And when the 2025 NFL Draft came around, the entire country watched the first round pass without Sanders hearing his name called. It continued all the way to the fifth round, when the Cleveland Browns finally selected Sanders. 

There are always players who slide during the draft, but this one felt unprecedented. Absolutely nobody had the former Colorado star QB slipping to the fifth round. 

To make things worse, Sanders received a call on the second night of the 2025 NFL Draft that he believed was from Saints GM Mickey Loomis. It turned out to be a prank call from the son of Jeff Ulbrich, the defensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons. 

“[I have] been waiting on you,” Sanders said on the call, which was documented in a livestream. “You’re gonna have to wait a little bit longer,” the caller replied and hung up the call. Sanders was visibly confused. “What does that mean?” he asked on the livestream

Due to the unfortunate incident, and other players like Abdul Carter and Kyle McCord also reporting they were prank called on draft night, the NFL has implemented a new system to prevent these incidents moving forward. 

The relevant contact information will be provided by the league to a single point of contact at the club in football operations,” an NFL spokesman told The Athletic. “This individual will be responsible for safeguarding the numbers.”

According to reports, Ulbrich’s son found Sanders’ contact information on an iPad that belonged to his dad or the Falcons. The NFL ultimately fined the Falcons $250,000 and another $100,00 for Ulbrich.

It will be interesting to see if the new protocols actually prevent these kinds of pranks from happening on draft night moving forward. 

More Browns news:

• Browns predicted to trade for Brian Thomas Jr. from Jaguars with 24th pick
• Todd Monken missed NFL head coach photo thanks to getting a haircut for said photo
• Why Shedeur Sanders is changing Browns jersey to No. 2 after wearing 12
• Browns back out of A.J. Epenesa's free agent contract
• Deshaun Watson is obviously the Browns' most overpaid player