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Shedeur Sanders apparently isn’t the only person who “torpedoed” his NFL draft chances.
When discussing the former Colorado quarterback’s stunning slide over the weekend to the fifth round in the 2025 NFL Draft, with the Browns grabbing him at No. 144 overall, Boomer Esiason claimed Monday the 23-year-old Sanders wasn’t on draft boards at the discretion of unnamed ownership.
“When you listen to this kid talk, right prior or at the combine, about how if you want a new culture in your locker room, I’m the guy to do that, I can turn it around, he’s very high on himself, and I think he’s very off-putting to many, many coaches and general managers in the league,” Esiason said Monday on WFAN’s “Boomer & Gio.”
“I’m telling you right now, and I know this after talking to three different personnel people in the NFL this weekend, they didn’t even have him on their board. They took him off, and they took him off because the owner said, ‘Take him off, I don’t want that guy. I don’t want this … entitled person on our team,’ and I don’t blame them.”
In the months leading up to the draft, Sanders stirred buzz over comments made at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, when rumors percolated about the QB’s alleged “unprofessional” behavior.
“We went from Jackson State to Colorado and changed two programs back-to-back,” Sanders said at the combine. “You don’t think I could come to an NFL franchise and change a program again? It’s history. It’s always going to repeat itself.”
Sanders, once projected to go in the early rounds of this year’s draft, had to wait until the third and final day to receive that life-altering call from the Browns, who already landed Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel in the third round Friday night.
Beyond the quarterback “just torpedo[ing] himself” where the pre-draft process is concerned, Esiason added Monday the quarterback’s father, Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, “didn’t help” matters, particularly when he joked about the family pulling an “Eli,” a nod to Eli Manning forcing a draft-day trade in 2004 from the Chargers to the Giants.
It was a rollercoaster draft experience for Sanders’ family as the quarterback fell victim to a prank caller, who posed as a representative of an NFL team.
Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, was involved and has since issued an apology.
Only two quarterbacks were taken in the first round of this year’s draft, with Cam Ward going No. 1 overall to the Titans and Jaxson Dart being selected at No. 25 by the Giants, whom Sanders worked out for.
Sanders was also linked to the Steelers and Saints, both of whom drafted quarterbacks.
He and Gabriel join a crowded quarterback room that includes Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Deshaun Watson.
Sanders’ brother, safety Shilo Sanders, went undrafted and later signed with the Buccaneers.
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