The gloves finally came off Friday night. We got vintage Mel Kiper Jr. again.
Round 1 of the 2025 NFL Draft was filled with Kiper pounding the table for Shedeur Sanders as his No. 1 quarterback. Before the Tennessee Titans selected Cam Ward with the first overall pick, the longtime ESPN draft analyst lamented the mistake he believed was coming.
Thursday night became a four-hour love letter to Sanders, and as the son of Deion Sanders kept sliding, Kiper kept boiling. When Jaxson Dart came off the board, Kiper made it clear he liked Sanders better. When the Pittsburgh Steelers passed on Sanders for Oregon defensive lineman Derrick Harmon, Kiper didn’t crush them.
As Andrew Marchand noted, the Kiper of 35 years ago would’ve lit up the Steel City. But he didn’t. Kiper still praised Sanders, but he stopped short of torching the team’s passing on his fifth-rated prospect.
Nick Wright later argued that while Kiper’s evaluation of Sanders was fair game, it shouldn’t hijack the broadcast every time someone else’s name was called.
But Round 1 made one thing obvious: Kiper saw Sanders far differently than the NFL did. That’s happened before. It happened with Jimmy Clausen. It happened with Blaine Gabbert. It’ll happen again. Most figured Sanders would go in Round 2. He didn’t. Then Round 3. Still no Sanders.
And that’s when Kiper took the gloves off and turned back the clock.
When the Seattle Seahawks picked Jalen Milroe, Kiper didn’t just disagree, he unloaded the clip. He defended Sanders against perceptions he said were unfair, arguing that wherever Sanders landed, there wouldn’t be a “circus,” but only a quarterback who would cause sleepless nights and anguish for teams that passed.
It wasn’t a full-on screaming match, but for a 64-year-old Kiper, it was the closest we’ve seen in years to the fire that once made him appointment television.
Right or wrong, he stood on the table.
When Round 3 ended with Sanders still undrafted, Kiper had nothing left to say except that he was “disgusted.” His disdain for NFL decision-makers was palpable.
Mel Kiper Jr. to close out Day 2 on ESPN2 with Shedeur Sanders still undrafted:
“I really have nothing to say. I’m just disgusted. That’s all I can say.” #NFL #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/ypnTubvVED
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 26, 2025
Finally.
This was the vintage Kiper we’d been missing. The righteous fury, the unwillingness to play nice. It was like Nolan Ryan hitting 95 on the black, or Greg Maddux freezing a hitter with a two-seamer on the corner. Kiper doesn’t live in that gear anymore. But when he found it Friday night, it still worked.
You can debate his analysis all you want. But at that moment, Mel Kiper Jr. was vindicated because he was finally himself again.
And it felt necessary.
In today’s draft coverage, analysts are under increasing pressure to celebrate every pick, spin every move positively, and keep the mood relentlessly upbeat. Critique has been replaced by cautious optimism. Every player is a “steal,” every pick is “interesting,” and every franchise seems to “have a plan.” It’s good for feelings. It’s terrible for honesty.
That’s why vintage Kiper still matters.
No one is asking analysts to crush 20-year-olds chasing their dreams. There’s a way to respect the players while still holding teams accountable for their decisions. That’s the balance Kiper once mastered, and glimpses of it on Friday night reminded us what real draft coverage can be.
When Kiper criticized teams for passing on Shedeur Sanders, he wasn’t attacking the players who were picked. He was challenging the process and philosophy behind those decisions. That’s an important distinction. Draft night isn’t just about highlighting prospects; it’s about dissecting why franchises make the moves they do, for better or worse.
We don’t need analysts to tear down players. But we also don’t need them to hold hands, sing “Kumbaya,” and pretend every front office got it right. That’s not analysis, that’s PR.
The draft is a brutal, high-stakes evaluation process where careers are made and lost. Pretending otherwise insults the intelligence of the audience. Fans don’t tune in for group hugs. They tune in for real insight: who took risks, who made mistakes, and who could end up regretting it.
Mel Kiper Jr., going back to his roots — questioning, challenging, pushing — gave the broadcast a needed jolt of authenticity. It brought back a sense of urgency and consequence that too often gets watered down by forced positivity.
Draft analysis doesn’t have to be mean. It just has to be honest.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.