The talk of the first round of the NFL Draft didn’t even get drafted: How the media covered Shedeur Sanders’s slide - The Boston Globe (2025)

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders was by far the most discussed player on any of the networks carrying the draft. Analyst Joel Klatt acknowledged as much at the top of the NFL Network broadcast, saying, “We’re on Shedeur Sanders watch.” That emphasis led to some entertaining, if slightly unhinged, television as the Son of Prime Time nosedived out of the first round entirely, not taken until the sixth pick of Round 5 — No. 144 overall.

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. got downright weird ― or weirder, in his mostly likable way ― as Sanders slid past the Steelers at No. 21, then the Giants at No. 25 (after they traded back into the first round for Mississippi quarterback Jaxson Dart).

In the months of lead-up, Kiper had pounded the table for Sanders as the best quarterback prospect. When presumed suitor after presumed suitor passed on him, Kiper’s frustration reached a boil, finally spilling over while the Chargers were on the clock at No. 22 with a rant in which he rattled off a checklist of star quarterbacks who had been overlooked in the draft.

Among those he cited were Dan Marino ― “passed over for Cal-Davis’s Ken O’Brien,” Kiper said, neglecting to mention the Patriots’ selection of Tony Eason ― as well as Lamar Jackson, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Drew Brees, Brock Purdy, and Matt Ryan. “I didn’t mention the greatest of all time, Tom Brady,” concluded Kiper, who spoke faster and faster the longer his rant went. “You get burned nine times out of 10 by passing on these guys.”

It was hard to tell what point Kiper thought he was making, because the names he listed don’t have much in common other than they ended up success stories. Their paths were all different, and so the point he inadvertently made was that no one truly knows which players will succeed and which ones won’t, because there are so many variables that go into cutting it in the NFL.

He doesn’t know if Sanders will make it, just as Kiper didn’t know ― just to pull an example here ― whether Jimmy Clausen would succeed when he sang the overrated Notre Dame quarterback’s praises in the 2010 NFL Draft.

Most were more reasonable about Sanders’s slide. When the QB-needy Steelers were on the clock at No. 21, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah had a logical explanation why they wouldn’t take him.

“They took one ride on that roller coaster in this portion of the draft [in selecting Kenny Pickett in 2022],” he said. “I don’t know that they will do that again.”

On the ABC broadcast, Nick Saban lamented that exaggerated possibilities had been created for Sanders.

“You know, I hate this,” he said. “We created this expectation for this guy that he was going to get picked. That just creates expectation. It’s not a reality.”

It was an interesting point, but it neglected to mention two things. Many draft analysts, including, prominently, Yahoo! Sports’ Nate Tice, broke down time and again why Sanders should not be a first-round pick. Further, for Saban to say that when much of the hype for Sanders came from his employer had the distinct feel of the Tim Robinson “we’re all trying to find the guy who did this” meme.

I should note that the NFL Network and ABC broadcasts (which I watched more often than the ESPN version) did a nice job breaking down the Patriots’ predictable pick of Campbell. Jeremiah noted how desperately the Patriots need quality linemen, particularly at left tackle.

“Of all the teams in the draft, to me, the tackle need for the Patriots was probably the most glaring across all 32 teams,” said Jeremiah. “They had to go in this direction. They had to address the offensive line. They had no choice.”

He later added a telling observation about the condition of the Patriots’ line last season.

“When I did a Patriot game last year, I normally like to try to circle the offensive linemen who I think could be vulnerable, [guys] teams could go after,” Jeremiah said. “I circled the whole group.”

The best anecdote regarding Campbell ― and one of the better ones on any prospect ― came from ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel. He revealed that the Patriots’ brain trust had taken a covert trip to visit Campbell in Louisiana, where coach Mike Vrabel put on a blocking pad and got knocked on his “derriere.”

“How would you like to punch your future boss on a job interview?” said Thamel. “Well, that’s what Will Campbell did.”

It was a fascinating detail, one Vrabel confirmed later Friday night. I’m glad there was room for such worthwhile anecdotes amid all of the Sanders talk.

Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeChadFinn.