When the 2025 NFL Draft kicked off on Saturday for the third and final day, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders was still available. Many thought the New Orleans Saints might take Sanders with their first-round pick but they took Kelvin Banks Jr. and the slide continued for the Colorado product.
The Saints had another chance to take Sanders in the second round but opted to go with Louisville signal-caller Tyler Shough instead. It became clear at this point that Sanders' slide was more about his attitude and poor interviewing than it was about his performance and former Saints head coach Sean Payton couldn't believe it.
“We are all surprised and listen the talent, holy cow," Payton said. "They’ll be this chip on his shoulder and beware, because this guy’s gonna play in this league.”
Sean Payton weighs in on Shedeur Sanders' draft slide
While Sanders is certainly not worse than some of the quarterbacks taken ahead of him, sliding this far shows that his interviews did not impress front offices and that teams don't view him as a starter. The Saints were clearly in this group, not only passing on him but going with Shough, a long-time collegiate player with injury issues, over him.
Hearing Payton say that he thinks Sanders will play in the league is interesting but also not surprising. It's not as though he's going to insult the kid and continue to drag him when he's had enough of that already through the first two days of the draft.
Seeing Sanders at one time being considered a first-round (top-five even) pick and now sliding all the way to the third day of the draft is a crazy slide but some team will take him. Sanders' father, Deion Sanders, could also be a reason why teams are afraid to take the kid, as Deion is going to be very involved in everything his son does at the professional level and teams won't want to deal with that.
We'll see if the Saints made the right call not only passing on him but passing on him for Shough.