Colorado Buffaloes football icon Shedeur Sanders intentionally undermined specific NFL draft interviews’ perception.
Shedeur Sanders faced significant criticism prior to the 2025 NFL Draft, stemming from unfavorable reviews of his pre-draft interviews to the contentious role of his father, Deion. Still, football enthusiasts didn’t foresee the Colorado Buffaloes icon falling all the way to the fifth round.
Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports recently covered Shedeur’s performance – or absence of it – in various pre-draft meetings with teams around the league. The NFL insider disclosed that Shedeur effectively undermined his interviews with teams he hoped to avoid in the draft, displaying a lack of effort that irritated the whole league.
“This serves as a rejection by the NFL regarding how Shedeur Sanders and his associates managed the whole NFL draft process… During some of those [combine] discussions with specific teams that Shedeur Sanders perhaps wasn’t thrilled about, or couldn’t envision himself joining for various reasons,” Jones stated. “I heard that he more or less played it down in those interviews …” I’m not sure if he was dismissive or what, but he didn’t fully commit during some of those interviews. “Offended certain teams.”
According to these reports, Shedeur showed a deficiency in professionalism that resulted in him losing millions of dollars in salary. The Cleveland Browns took a gamble on the mysterious quarterback with the No. 144 selection, yet recent whispers indicate that Shedeur might not even secure a spot on the final roster following training camp.
In addition to his pre-draft sandbagging, Shedeur attracted further negative attention when Deion retired his jersey only months after his Colorado career concluded. The retirement of Shedeur and ex-teammate Travis Hunter’s jerseys on April 19 caused understandable shock and disappointment among former Buffs legends and football fans in general.
Michael Jones, a former linebacker and team captain for Colorado who played from 1987 to 1989, expressed his thoughts about the jersey retirement to USA TODAY Sports, labeling it as “entirely ridiculous.”
Shedeur is expected to put some of his pre-draft issues behind him as he begins his NFL career. A bit of distance from Coach Prime for development and growth might be exactly what the young quarterback requires.