Shedeur Sanders slid in the 2025 NFL Draft and didn’t hear his name called until the fifth round when the Cleveland Browns selected him with the 144th-overall pick. It was one of the most unexpected slides in any draft. After a standout season where he led his team to a 9-4 record while throwing for over 4,100 yards and 37 touchdowns, Sanders was passed on by every single team in the draft multiple times.
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One of those teams included the Las Vegas Raiders, who ended up selecting two quarterbacks late in the draft. Many were surprised the Raiders and minority owner Tom Brady — who has a strong relationship with the Sanders football family and has even mentored Shedeur — didn’t select the Colorado product.
Having mentored Sanders and seeing him slide in the draft, some thought Brady would have pushed the team to select Sanders. They didn’t. This caused many people in the media, including Skip Bayless questioning Brady’s involvement in the team making picks and why he chose to pass on Sanders.
“It is now pretty clear Tom Brady – who mentored Shedeur – told the Raiders NOT to take Shedeur,” Skip had posted online after the Raiders failed to draft Shedeur.
Brady called out Bayless and the media in a recent episode appearance on Jake Paul’s YouTube channel, Impaulsive, where he said he had no part in the evaluation process.
“I wasn’t a part of any evaluation process. That’s the problem with media. Everyone can say whatever the f–k they want. I actually texted Shedeur because I know him very well. I said, ‘Dude, whatever happens, wherever you go … that’s your first day. Day 2 matters more than the draft,” Brady said on the Impaulsive podcast, seemingly hitting back at Bayless.
Following this admission, though, Bayless didn’t back down. In fact, he has chosen to double down, calling “BS on Tom Brady.”
“Tom Brady has called me out, I guess he’s called me a liar,” said Bayless. “I’m about to call BS on Tom Brady, because Tom, you know and I know everything I said about you and Shedeur Sanders is obviously exactly right.”
Backing up his claim, Bayless pointed out that Pete Carroll had said shortly after being hired as the new head coach that the team would build up the QB position and would lean on Brady as much as the team possibly could.
He then also pointed to how new Raiders General Manager John Spytek said that the team would be foolish not to involve Tom, noting Brady’s close relationship with Spytek and Raiders majority owner Al Davis.
Regardless of Brady’s involvement in the draft, the team elected to pass on him in the draft. Seeing that he slid all the way to the fifth round, it could have been a bargain for the Raiders to draft Sanders anywhere past the third round, as they would have gotten him a cheap rookie contract. For now, Geno Smith is the quarterback the team will rely on for at least the next couple of seasons.
