It’s the eve of the NFL Draft, and we have no idea where Shedeur Sanders is going.
We know he won’t be the first quarterback off the board. Could he perhaps be the second? We’re about to find out and see if this so-called “pile on” affects his draft stock. Shedeur Sanders implored people not to read everything the media puts out there, even as members of the media like Louis Riddick, Joel Klatt, Dan Orlovsky, Kay Adams, and Josina Anderson take up for him.
They’re not doing his PR or shielding him from criticism, but they believe the smear campaign has gone too far.
And Kyle Brandt, who spent Wednesday’s Good Morning Football lamenting the anonymous hate Shedeur Sanders has received in the lead-up to this weekend’s draft, agrees.
“I’m in my feelings about this right now, maybe it’s because the draft is tomorrow,” Brandt began.
Take the below nugget from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero as Exhibit A.
One longtime NFL assistant coach said his time with Sanders was “the worst formal interview I’ve ever been in in my life. He’s so entitled. He takes unnecessary sacks. He never plays on time. He has horrible body language. He blames teammates. … But the biggest thing is, he’s not that good.” Said one longtime AFC executive: “It didn’t go great in our interview. He wants to dictate what he’s going to do and what’s best for him. He makes you feel small.” Even some of Sanders’ fans expressed disappointment he didn’t take a bigger step forward as a senior. “I liked him the year before,” an NFC GM said. “They did change coordinators. It just felt different. It felt less athletic, less arm talent — everything felt less. If you’re talking about this year’s tape versus (Jaxson) Dart and Shedeur, I don’t think it was particularly close.”
“Shut up, anonymous coach. I am so triggered by this,” Brandt said. “Shut up. This is not only anonymous, I think it’s tasteless. The timing is ridiculous. ‘The worst formal interview I’ve…’ Is it really? Is it? Or are you just going for a headline? Or maybe you haven’t been in that many interviews in your career? This is the worst one ever? Or maybe, maybe the vibe that you set in the room was critical, and Shedeur picked up on that. And maybe he was right, because the first second you could, you betrayed the sanctity of that room, and went anonymously and started spouting off about this player.
“‘He’s so entitled.’ I see entitlement in a grown professional who’s going around anonymously destroying young athletes with very personal quotes, anonymously, as they’re about to realize their dreams and become professionals. Do not listen to that quote. That quote is bullcrap. It’s news. It’s worthy. I hate that quote. Listen to Shedeur’s teammates, who kept picking him up, over and over, as he got the crap kicked out of him last year, who don’t have negative things to say, who know him, who have been in rooms with him. Don’t listen to this. He said, ‘He’s not that good.’ Well, maybe neither are you, anonymous quote coach. And maybe that’s why you’re an assistant coach, and not a head coach, and you have been for a long time.”]
Ouch.
“I am so triggered by this,” Brandt says. “I think it’s nonsense. I love [Pelissero’s] piece. It’s getting us talking. It’s part of the Shedeur experience. But that anonymous, that personal, and that critical at this timing is garbage.”
So now we wait, because tomorrow, the NFL will decide if it values the whispers of anonymity.
Or if it values what Shedeur Sanders has to offer to a team as the potential quarterback of the future.
We know where Brandt stands. But the only opinion that will matter this weekend is the one written on a draft card, handed in by a team willing to see past this noise and bet on Shedeur Sanders.