The biggest story of the 2025 NFL Draft after Round 1 is a player who didn’t even get picked. Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders remains on the board, and is a popular choice to be scooped up early Friday evening.
But that’s not the outcome Sanders expected. Sanders came into the event as a projected first-round pick on multiple big boards. Even if some analysts ranked him lower, it wouldn’t have been a shock to see a team push Sanders up the draft board given his position.
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That didn’t happen Thursday. After 32 picks, Sanders remains on the board. While he handled his fall well, another member of the Sanders family showed more frustration as the night unfolded.
That would be Shedeur’s brother Deion Sanders Jr., who started the night sending out motivating messages and ended it ripping a team that passed on his brother.
As the night began, Deion Jr. sent out inspiring passages from the Bible. They were clearly meant to be motivating as Shedeur started to fall. Once it became clear Shedeur wasn’t going as high as expected, Deion Jr.’s tone changed. He retweeted his own tweet as Shedeur continued to plummet, which read, “The REJECTED WILL BE RESPECTED.”
As the first round progressed, Deion Jr. made it clear he wasn’t pleased with the situation. That came across after Deion Jr. retweeted a Mel Kiper Jr. quote where the long-time draft analyst said Shedeur would make teams pay for passing on him.
But the most inflammatory retweet was still to come. Late in the draft, the New York Giants traded back up into the first round. It was widely assumed the Giants would select a quarterback with that pick. The team did exactly that, but it wasn’t Sanders. New York selected Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart ahead of Shedeur with the No. 25 pick.
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Deion Jr. responded to that by retweeted former Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy, who said the pick was the reason the Giants don’t win games.
Draft analysts were split on the selection. While some believed the Giants set up Dart for success, Yahoo Sports’ Charles McDonald gave the team a D grade for taking a player who needs to develop quite a bit before playing in NFL games. By the time Dart is ready to play, Brian Daboll, the coach who drafted Dart, could be out of the picture. That does carry some risk.
Deion Sanders defends Shedeur from criticism
Deion Jr. wasn’t the only member of the Sanders family to make noise on social media Thursday. As the draft was starting, Deion Sanders, Shedeur’s father and coach, called out ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky for hating on Shedeur.
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Deion responded to a comment on a video in which Orlovsky pointed out some plays Shedeur would need to clean up in the NFL. One fan said Orlovsky “turned into a hater.” Deion responded by saying, “Yes he did! Wow.”
The Orlovsky video was pretty standard draft analysis. Orlovsky used a few plays to illustrate some of the weaknesses in Shedeur’s game. Orlovsky even responded to the fan, saying this is the type of analysis he does on every single quarterback. He added that he’s not a Shedeur hater and expected the Colorado quarterback to be drafted in the first round. That all feels pretty mild, but that was enough to draw Deion’s ire.
While those reactions weren’t the reason Shedeur dropped in the draft, they do highlight a concern some evaluators had as draft day approached. In the lead up to the draft, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network published a lengthy piece in which anonymous NFL executives spoke about the quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft.
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Shedeur got a lot of criticism in that piece for both his ability and personality. But one analyst specifically called out Deion’s involvement as a reason some teams might be turned off by drafting Shedeur.
“You can’t have your dad saying, ‘I’m going to come put a quarterback coach on blast who said you were arrogant.’ So, he can’t be criticized?” a veteran NFC executive said.
That quote perfectly captured Deion’s reaction Thursday night.
The irony here is that, despite all the criticism he’s faced, Shedeur handled Thursday night better than any other member of his family. He didn’t send out any negative messages on social media, and said his fall would make him even more motivated to prove people wrong. That’s the standard playbook any time a highly-rated prospect falls in the draft.
Given his family, Shedeur is always going to face added attention and scrutiny. He navigated that situation well Thursday despite the disappointment he must have felt.
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