Shedeur Sanders took a draft day tumble for the ages. Just months ago, he was being talked about as the potential No. 1 overall pick. After all, he led the Colorado Buffaloes to a surprising 9-4 record despite getting knocked around behind one of the worst offensive lines in college football.
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But when the big night came, the hype didn’t hold. Shedeur’s slide wasn’t just unexpected — it was historic, and it’s bound to go down in NFL draft lore. The fall from grace? Brutal. The Cleveland Browns selected the 23-year-old QB with the 144th overall pick in the fifth round.
Many people had different opinions on why Sanders slid. There were rumors about how he conducted himself in pre-draft interviews, with teams reportedly turned off. A few anonymous scouts claimed that Sanders lacked maturity, was selfish, and gave poor interviews. Well, NFL analyst Nick Wright has a different theory.
Appearing on The Colin Cowherd Podcast, Wright presented a new theory, suggesting that Sanders’ uncertainty about his role led teams to pass on him. He explained it using a three-horse analogy from his own early broadcasting career: money horses, show horses, and work horses. According to Wright, Shedeur didn’t know which one he was.
“You gotta know what type of horse you are for this company,” Wright said. “There are three horses in radio. There’s the money horse, there’s the show horse, and there’s the work horse. You’re gonna screw up if you don’t know which horse you are.”
Wright felt that heading into the draft, Sanders saw himself as a show horse, but teams questioned whether he could shift into a work horse when needed. Shedeur believed he was the star — he was the one conducting the interviews, trying to figure out which team suited him best.
Along the way, though, things went sideways for the suitors, who didn’t get the kind of compelling answers they expected from a prospect like Shedeur.
“The more interesting part is the Shedeur thing,” Wright continued. “Shedeur fell in the draft because he thought he was a show horse. Teams were looking at him as, ‘Are you a work horse?’”
Fair scenario.
Shedeur Sanders’ draft slide was for a reason
Sanders didn’t have the greatest college career, but he had a solid one over his four years at Jackson State and Colorado. He threw for over 14,000 yards and 134 touchdowns, finishing with a career record of 36-14. In a weaker QB draft class, Sanders was expected to be a top-10 pick, a first-rounder, or at the very least, an early second-day selection.
However, as previously mentioned, multiple reports suggested that Sanders interviewed poorly with teams prior to the draft. One report even claimed that he purposely tanked interviews with certain teams to avoid being drafted by them.
There’s also the concern—or distraction—of his father, Deion, who coaches the Colorado Buffaloes. Deion has been vocal many times about his son Shedeur playing in the NFL and has even said in the past that there were certain teams he wouldn’t want his son to play for.
Then there’s the theory of Coach Prime eventually making the jump to the big league. And where better than his own son’s team? However, what head coach would want to risk their job with a prospect like Shedeur under those circumstances?
Despite the slide, Shedeur has found a home in Cleveland. He will battle for a quarterback spot with Joe Flacco (the confirmed starter for now), Kenny Pickett, Deshaun Watson (if he returns), and rookie Dillon Gabriel, who was selected before Shedeur in the third round.
