Shedeur Sanders fell off the draft board of nearly every team because of his arrogance and attitude, NFL insiders have reported.
Former NFL quarterback turned analyst Boomer Esiason said NFL owners told their teams to take Sanders off their draft boards after he “torpedoed himself.”
‘I think he was very off putting to many, many coaches and general managers in the league.’
Esiason echoed what many reporters and analysts have been saying about Sanders, the son of NFL legend Deion, in that the young quarterback’s attitude off the field and at the NFL Combine was what dropped him from a first-round draft pick to a fifth. By most accounts, Sanders was lucky to be drafted even then.
“When you listen to this kid talk, prior or at the Combine, about ‘if you want a new culture in your locker room, I’m the guy to do that, I can turn it around.’ I mean, he’s very high on himself, and I think he was very off-putting, off-putting to many, many coaches and general managers in the league,” Esiason said on WFAN660 radio. “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.'”
Relaying what he was told owners had said, Esiason recalled, “‘I don’t want that guy. I don’t want this entitled person on our team,’ and I don’t blame them.”
Shedeur Sanders speaks to the media during the 2025 NFL Combine despite not participating. Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images
Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter had a similar report from his conversations with NFL staff members. On the “Fully Loaded” podcast, Carter said there were many factors that hurt Sanders’ draft ranking.
Not only did Carter feel it was a disservice for Sanders to not participate in the NFL Draft Combine, but also his attitude in his interviews, his media statements, and his father’s advocation hurt his image with teams. According to Carter, Sanders may have hurt his chances with many teams in the future, as well, because of his attitude, as general managers and coaches will remember their first interaction with him.
“Let me tell you what he understands today, OK?” Carter explained. “He ain’t running s**t, OK? Let me tell you what, they taught him a great lesson. Like, you don’t have this figured out, your dad don’t have this figured out.”
Despite President Trump advocating for Sanders’ talent and bloodline, critics seem to agree that Sanders was the author of his own demise.
CBS Sports NFL reporter Jonathan Jones said Sanders “sandbagged” several of his interviews and “did not give it his all” in meetings with teams he did not think would draft him, which “rubbed some teams the wrong way.”
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero said an assistant coach told him that Sanders conducted “the worst formal interview” he had ever witnessed in his life.
The assistant coach used a now all-too-familiar term, “entitled,” to describe Sanders, and he added that he has “horrible body language,” “blames teammates,” and actually is “not that good,” Pelissero relayed, per Yahoo Sports.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
