Before the 2025 NFL offseason began, Colorado Buffaloes superstar Shedeur Sanders looked like a lock for the number one overall pick. If not, a top-three selection seemed inevitable. The narrative around the quarterback back then was simple: fans and analysts either saw him as a future face of a franchise or as the most polished quarterback in the draft, not named Cam Ward.
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But as we inched closer to D-Day, the certainty everyone had in Sanders’ draft stock began to fade. The quarterback went from being projected as the crème de la crème to the ninth spot. A few weeks later, his stock plummeted even further, with some linking him to the 21st pick, while a few even projected him as a second-day selection. And now, three days before the draft, no one knows where he’ll land.
Veteran NFL analyst Rich Eisen, in a bid for clarity, posed the question everyone’s been asking to draft expert Todd McShay on his show: “Where do you got Shedeur Sanders landing three days before the draft?”
McShay’s response pretty much said it all: Shedeur Sanders’ draft projection is a mess right now. “Nobody seems to specifically know,” he admitted, then added,
“What I’ve been told is there’s a little bit more love in the [New York] Giants building on the personnel side—the scouting department. The coaching staff? Not so much.”
That split between the front office and the coaching staff perfectly captures the mystery around Shedeur. On paper, he checks a lot of boxes. The former Colorado star and son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders threw for 4,134 yards and 37 touchdowns last year, completing nearly 74% of his passes to lead college football.
Shedeur made smart reads, avoided costly mistakes, and showed he could lead under pressure, even behind a struggling offensive line. Yet, here we are, just days before the big event in Green Bay, and his draft spot remains the biggest question mark.
And to make things worse, McShay revealed that even the Pittsburgh Steelers—once considered Shedeur’s “floor”—may be backing off. “Mike Tomlin does like Shedeur Sanders,” McShay said. “I thought that was the floor… but I’ve been told it might not even be a 50% chance they take him at 21.”
The uncertainty doesn’t stop there. Teams aren’t just weighing Sanders—they’re actively exploring alternatives. McShay revealed that even the New Orleans Saints, who hold the ninth overall pick and were originally linked to Sanders, may now be pivoting toward Jaxson Dart. Especially with uncertainty surrounding Derek Carr’s injury status.
“There’s more talk about, ‘Where do we have to go in the 20s to get Jaxson Dart?’ than there is about Shedeur,” McShay noted. “I think New Orleans is more interested in Dart. I think maybe the coaching staff for the Giants could be more interested in Dart.”
Truth be told, Shedeur Sanders’ draft story has been as strange as it gets. You’ve got a quarterback with elite mechanics, strong bloodlines, and top-notch accuracy, and yet he’s slipping under the radar in front offices. Why? Logically, it seems the reasons are more political than performance-based.
Are teams debating his fit, his development curve, and yes, perhaps even the shadow cast by his father? There are plenty of questions surrounding the quarterback, which only adds to the intrigue of how the first day of the 2025 NFL Draft will play out.
As McShay remarked, “It’s going to be a fascinating night… There’s going to be a lot of speculation and rumors.”
Wherever Shedeur Sanders ends up, one thing is certain: it won’t be because of a lack of talent. It will come down to vision—and whether a franchise has the conviction to bet on a player who’s already shown he can uplift a struggling team and command a locker room.
As McShay put it, the scouting departments might love him, but the coaching staffs still have questions. Luckily for us, Thursday night—the date that will give us all the answers—is right around the corner!
