NFL draft news: Contender deemed most likely to take Colorado Buffaloes football legend Shedeur Sanders

Colorado Buffaloes football legend Shedeur Sanders slid out of the first three rounds of the 2025 NFL draft in an all-time stunning development. The “Grown QB” was passed on by teams like the Browns and Saints, who went with Dillon Gabriel and Tyler Shough instead, respectively, and now has no clear direction with the final four rounds looming.

The Athletic’s Dan Duggan believes a contender is the likeliest to select Sanders. The plan, according to Duggan, is to increase his trade value and cash in on him as an asset in the future.

“This is the other element at play in such a steep slide. He was almost more likely to be a first-round pick than a third-round pick. Now, he’ll get picked at some point today because the value will be impossible to ignore. But I bet it’ll be a team with a top QB so there is no drama about him starting,” Duggan wrote.

“Could be a smart investment for a team like that to take him as a trade asset in a year if he performs well in the preseason.”

The Chiefs, which saw Pat Mahomes stand up for Shedeur, and the Ravens, which could use competition for Cooper Rush behind Lamar Jackson as QB2, could be possibilities.

Duggan believes Coach Prime’s influence as Shedeur’s representation led to his draft stock’s ambiguous value.

“The thing that sticks out about Shedeur’s slide is he either got bad info or was delusional. He didn’t participate in any all-star game, didn’t workout at the combine and didn’t do any athletic testing,” Duggan wrote.

“That’s how a top pick handles the draft process. So why did he think he was going to be a top pick? He doesn’t have an agent, so teams presumably were communicating directly with Deion. Was he misled? It will be very interesting to hear what he has to say when this is over.”

From skipping the scouting combine and the East-West Shrine Bowl to throwing his offensive line under the bus over the years, Shedeur has done little to actually improve his draft stock.

A good agent would’ve been more realistic. But Deion got overexcited about his son and expected the NFL to take him anyway.

Pro football is a different beast. Coach Prime may have proved he doesn’t belong in the NFL in any capacity after how he handled Shedeur’s draft.