The slide of new Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders was baffling to some, but not to others, as the former Colorado star fell to the fifth round of the NFL draft last weekend.
Sanders's potential, and all that he brings along with him off the field, made him an enigma. Ultimately, the Browns were comfortable selecting him even after drafting former Oregon Ducks quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
As for the reason for Sanders’s fall, some suspected collusion, but most believed that he was just mercurial. File the thoughts of former ESPN president John Skipper under the latter. He discussed Sanders’s draft weekend at length with Pablo Torre on a recent episode of his podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out.
"The NFL talent managers did not believe he was a first, second, third round choice," Skipper said. "This is a big story because the most prominent draft expert on ESPN, Mel Kiper, who has generally been pretty accurate.This is I think the greatest disparity ever between a player he was expecting to be taken very high. He expects him to be a high-impact player and make a difference.
“A lot of people just passed. They probably didn't want the distraction of Deion Sanders among other things. The first time your quarterback doesn't perform well you think Deion is going to go on SportsCenter wondering when they're gonna play my son?"
The distraction that comes with Shedeur being the son of Deion and all that comes along with it certainly could have led to the slide. Regardless of what the reasons were, Skipper does not believe NFL teams huddled up together to collude against drafting the Colorado star. Neither does Torre.
"It's not collusion, it's a test of power in which every NFL team was like...'This guy is not good enough to demand the treatment, the power that he thinks he deserves,'" Torre added.
Former ESPN president John Skipper pushes back on the theory that there was "collusion" by NFL teams against Shedeur Sanders.@PabloTorre: "It's not collusion, it's a test of power in which every NFL team was like ... 'This guy is not good enough to demand the treatment, the… pic.twitter.com/mffhGwmw4R
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) April 29, 2025
It remains to be seen what kind of quarterback Sanders will be, but he'll have a chance to compete for the starting quarterback job next season. He's entering a room with the veteran, Joe Flacco, along with Kenny Pickett and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former ESPN President Dismisses NFL Collusion Theory for Shedeur Sanders Draft Slide.