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When quarterback prospect Shedeur Sanders fell out of the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, there were some who couldn’t believe he hadn't been picked by an organization, although it wasn’t considered a total shock.
But with Friday night seeing three more quarterbacks not named Sanders come off the draft board, the reaction was pure shock.
Sanders, the Colorado Buffaloes quarterback who was a Heisman Trophy finalist this past college season, remains available heading into the third and final day of the NFL Draft. There have been 102 prospects taken off the board, and with Round 4 beginning at noon in Green Bay, everyone is wondering which NFL team will finally pull the trigger on Sanders.
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Surprise and shock might not even be the words to describe this fall down the draft board, arguably being the biggest we’ve seen in recent memory for someone whom many considered to be, at the very least, a Day 2 selection.
Why is this happening for Sanders? It’s the question on everyone’s mind, including ESPN’s Booger McFarland, who thinks the answer lies beyond the tape.
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"It’s gotta be about more than football," he said during the NFL Draft broadcast on the network. "He’s the best pure passer you can draft. When you start to see developmental projects like Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel – and nothing against those guys, but they’re not nearly the player that Shedeur Sanders is. When they go before him, the only thing you can say is that it’s more than football."
Tyler Shough (New Orleans Saints), Milroe (Seattle Seahawks), and Gabriel (Cleveland Browns) were all selected on Friday night in respective order. Gabriel, especially, was the icing on the cake for those who were baffled that Sanders hadn't gone off the board, as some experts didn’t have him on their top five quarterback rankings heading into the draft.
Mel Kiper Jr., the longtime NFL Draft analyst with ESPN, has been adamant about Sanders’ talent, ranking him the highest-graded prospect on his big board. He was vocal about Sanders making it out of the first round on Thursday night, but he was appalled to see what happened the next day.
"I think it’s disgusting," he said during a lengthy rant after Day 2 came and went. "I don’t understand what the heck’s going on with this. . . . Somebody’s gonna have to explain that one to me."
Joel Klatt, who called several Buffaloes games this past college season for Fox Sports, has seen what Sanders can do for a football program in person.
During NFL Network’s broadcast, Klatt pointed the finger at the narratives that were built about Sanders during the pre-draft process as to a reason why he’s slipping.
"Shedeur represents everything I dislike about the NFL Draft, and it’s only one thing: it’s narratives. It’s narratives that are built up, lazy, and quite frankly, trash. When you come out as an anonymous source about some meeting that you had, and you don’t think that some kid measured up to what you wanted him to be when he walked in your room, I think that’s trash.
"Shedeur Sanders is going to be a good quarterback in the National Football League, and I think he’s going to go make some head coach and some fan base very happy, because he’s already done that in his career in what I think is a very difficult spotlight for his dad at the University of Colorado and a program that was nothing before he got there for two decades."
At the same time, Klatt also believes this is time for Sanders to reflect, because the analyst feels it isn’t the tape that’s causing this freefall.
"His play on the field would suggest he should already have been selected," Klatt explained. "There were some quarterbacks, their play on the field probably doesn’t warrant a selection over his play on the field.
"The reason he’s undrafted at this point is because of the person that sat with those teams and did not, for whatever reason, jell with them."
It’s not just the analysts opining about Sanders’ draft situation – even President Donald Trump jumped into the mix to say how crazy it was.
"What is wrong with NFL owners, are they STUPID? Deion Sanders was a great college football player, and was even greater in the NFL. He’s also a very good coach, streetwise and smart! Therefore, Shedeur, his quarterback son, has PHENOMENAL GENES, and is all set for Greatness," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith called it "a damn disgrace." Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who already has a young quarterback after taking Bo Nix in the first round last years, admitted his surprise and even the Buffaloes football account on X posted 10 minutes worth of Sanders highlights, just to remind everyone of how good he can be on the gridiron.
These reactions are just the tip of the iceberg, as the football world continues to be bewildered at Sanders being available heading into the fourth round on Saturday.
After the final pick was made in Round 3, Sanders, who has been surrounded by friends and family at home, including his father and Colorado coach Deion Sanders, posted on X.
"Thank you GOD for EVERYTHING," he wrote.
Of the teams still in search for a potential new quarterback on the depth chart, the Pittsburgh Steelers, believed to be an option in Rounds 1 and 3, remain a frontrunner, as do the Las Vegas Raiders.
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Thirty-one teams made first-round selections on Thursday night (the Houston Texans traded back), and none of them selected Shedeur Sanders.
But then night two came, and more of the same occurred. In fact, the Colorado quarterback, who was once expected to potentially go in the top-five, was not even one of the top five QBs selected.
Three more quarterbacks, Tyler Shough, Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel, were all selected on Friday; Shough at 40 to the Saints, Milroe to the Seahawks at 92, and Gabriel going to Cleveland at 95.
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Over recent days, reports have been tough on Sanders, with one assistant coach saying he was "entitled" and simply "not that good," while adding his formal interview was "the worst."
ESPN's Dan Orlovsky pointed out some plays that need fixing ahead of the NFL Draft, but his colleague, Stephen A. Smith, doesn't think Sanders fell because of football reasons at all.
"I believe that the biggest issue in all of this was Primetime Deion Sanders and the thought of having to deal with him," Smith said on Friday's "First Take," hours before the second round even began.
"It’s hard for me to sit here today and to watch a dude that was once projected to be one of the top two picks potentially in the draft to drop completely out of the first round and to ignore all those reports that had come out about him leading into the draft."
Sanders' father, of course, has been rather vocal, on top of plenty of NFL rumors, over his coaching days.
"If you think that I’m going to sit here and assume that that was strictly an evaluation about his football skills alone that led to him falling out the entire first round without his father having an impact, I don’t buy that," Smith continued.
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Sanders, at one point, was considered to be the 1B to Cam Ward’s 1A. Ward separated himself and went first overall to the Tennessee Titans.
But, in recent days, it was becoming apparent that teams did not love Sanders – the Raiders took Ashton Jeanty at six, and the Saints went with Kelvin Banks Jr. at nine, officially starting the Sanders fall.
All eyes were on the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 21. But as no one traded up in front of them, the Steelers’ selection came and went without a QB – they opted for Derrick Harmon.
The New York Giants traded back into the first round, but they opted for Jaxson Dart instead.
And then, rounds two and three happened.
The former University of Colorado star admitted that he and his family "did not expect" what occurred on Thursday night, in footage posted by his brother, Deion Jr.
"We all didn't expect this, of course, but I feel like with God, anything possible, everything possible. I don't feel like this happened for no reason. All of this is, of course, fuel to the fire. Under no circumstances did we all know this was going to happen, but we understand we on to bigger and better things," the quarterback said.
"Tomorrow's the day. We going to be happy regardless. Legendary."
Tomorrow was not the day, and if Saturday isn't it, then perhaps the NFL world will be left speechless.
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Gary Trent Jr. tied a franchise playoff record with nine 3-pointers and scored 37 points, Giannis Antetokounmpo also had 37 and the Milwaukee Bucks used a big second half to beat Indiana 117-101 on Friday night and cut the Pacers' series lead to 2-1.
The Pacers led 57-47 at halftime, but Trent hit three 3-pointers early in the third to pull the Bucks even at 62. The Bucks grabbed a 72-69 lead on Antetokounmpo's three-point play and led 86-75 at the end of the quarter.
The lead grew to as many as 20 in the fourth and Trent finished 9 for 12 behind the arc to tie Hall of Famer Ray Allen's mark for most 3-pointers in a postseason game.
Antetokounmpo added 12 rebounds for Milwaukee, which hosts Game 4 on Sunday. A.J. Green scored 12 points and Bobby Portis had 10 for the Bucks, who took on the Pacers for the 18th time in the past two seasons.
Indiana had won five of the last six playoff games between the teams and ousted the Bucks from the playoffs in the opening round last season.
Pascal Siakam had 28 points and Aaron Nesmith scored 18 for the Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton finished with 14 points and 10 assists.
After trailing throughout Game 2, the Bucks grabbed an early lead. Antetokounmpo and Trent, who got a rare start, combined to score Milwaukee's first 21 points. No other Bucks player scored until Green sank a 3-pointer with 2:28 left in the opening quarter.
Milwaukee shot 4 for 23 from 3-point range over the first two quarters but was 11 for 18 after halftime.
Bucks star guard Damian Lillard was held to seven points on 2-of-12 shooting. He made just 1-of-8 3-pointers.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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