Mel Kiper Jr: ‘NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks’

Mel Kiper Jr. expressed a lot of frustration with the NFL and its teams as Shedeur Sanders slid to the fifth round after being viewed as a possible first-round pick during the 2025 NFL Draft. But according to the ESPN draft analyst, the league’s ability to identify good quarterbacks is nothing new.

Sanders falling out of the first round was Kiper’s main talking point on Thursday. That continued on Friday, as Kiper acknowledged he was “disgusted” with Sanders not being selected in the third or fourth rounds. That rant included Kiper recalling phone calls he got in 1998 from NFL people who felt that Peyton Manning was a third-round pick, even as the consensus at the time was that he’d be selected no lower than No. 2 overall. On Saturday, that continued, even after Sanders was selected by the Cleveland Browns. In a conversation with his ESPN colleagues, Kiper’s frustration continued to grow.

“This is not about, ‘Can you play the position?’ This is about, ‘Do we want you to play the position for us?'” Louis Riddick said.

After Kiper asked, “Why wouldn’t they?” Riddick tried to respond.

“That’s a whole ‘nother discussion that we’ve had in many different ways for weeks and months now,” Riddick replied.

“Is he not one of the toughest quarterbacks you’ve ever seen?” Kiper asked.

“Mel, this isn’t about quarterback traits and quarterback characteristics,” Riddick replied. “That’s not about this. This is personal.”

“Has he had an off-the-field issue? No, he has not,” Kiper retorted.

Kiper and Riddick talked over each other for a few seconds before Riddick said, “Mel, the draft has spoken.”

“That’s right,” Rece Davis said. “That’s the key, Mel. It’s not putting a value judgment who passed were right or wrong. They did. So, now, whenever you’re in circumstances in life, whether you like them, whether you don’t like them, whether they’re fair or whether they’re unfair, you might have to deal with them. And now Shedeur Sanders has to deal with them. And for whatever reason, whether he played a minute, microscopic percentage, zero percentage or it’s a legitimate criticism of the way he conducted himself during the draft process, this was the result. Now he has an opportunity to answer it. I think yelling at the NFL about it is not productive.”

Productive or not, Kiper was not done yelling at — or at least, about, the NFL.

“Boomer Esiason was not happy when he was a second-round pick,” Kiper said. “Tom Brady was not happy. They dropped. How’d they turn out? My point is, Rece, the NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks. Clueless. They have no idea what they’re doing in terms of evaluating quarterbacks. That’s proof. There’s proof of that. They can say, ‘We know exactly what we’re talking about with quarterbacks.’ They don’t.”

“Nobody’s batted a thousand,” Davis replied.

“All that matters now is what happens going forward,” Riddick added. “We talk it about it all the time. There is the evaluation phase, the evaluation and selection phase, which we’re in right now. Then there is the development and implementation phase. That’s where we’re headed to right now. That’s all that matters for him. Kevin Stefanski, Andrew Berry, have at it.”

“College kids now are getting paid,” Kiper said. “They’re professionals. They’re getting paid. They’re in commercials. They’re out there. You gotta deal with that. If you’re in the NFL, you have to deal with that. He’s saying whatever he’s saying behind closed doors. What’s he saying? ‘I wanna be the guy. I should be this. I should be that. Deion’s saying he’s the best player in the draft, the best quarterback. Second best to Travis Hunter. Who isn’t? What quarterback out there didn’t think they should have been a high first-round pick?”