The biggest story of the NFL design of 2025 was not the huge swing of Jacksonville Jaguars to trade in for WR/CB Travis Hunter, it was not the huge run on rulers in the first round.
It was, as always, a slide. A very prominent slide.
Colorado QB Sheder Sanders was not picked in the Damste Tour of the design, and it led to a lot of Takes, on both sides of the coin:
ESPN shows that his design day predictor thought that with 96% casual sanders there was through the 21st pick.
Mel Kiper Dan Numberus Star/Hall of Fame Quartbacks that have been transferred to the design. #Nfl #Nfldraft pic.twitter.com/2dnha4hjei
– Tidy announcement (@AWFULENNOUCING) April 25, 2025
If you are looking for Sanders’ name on social media, the bats fly out of hell. However, I do not really think that this is a conspiracy theory that is Sanders agaless, nor is this an example of the racism of the NFL (although we can point to many other things that are an example of it). I think this case is fairly simple:
Sheur Sanders was always a late first to early second round QB.
I had Sanders like my QB1, but also had no QBs as a accurate first round. No matter how I also play how Sanders plays the game, his accuracy that throws over the center of the field and Downfield Touch, playing the Quarterback position in the modern NFL it is all about having super power. Everyone chases their own version of Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, boys who can do the game domain with em -arm or their legs.
Sanders is not.
In contrast to top choices such as Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams or Drake Maye, he does not have that eagle -arm or the ability to take over the game with his legs. The NFL is willing to take risks on boys with Therticism, because it is easier to teach boys to throw a football. It is a bit harder to learn to be a man athletic. This is the entire Preise behind the Colts that Anthony Richardson chooses at number 5 in 2023 (although they ruined that process a bit after he was drawn up). Although Sanders is doing the bottom of the other things well, his athletic benefit is not really as high as other QB overviews taken in the Cracst round, with the exception of boys such as Bo Nix and Michael Penix JR.
That brings us to the second part of the reason why he fell: NFL teams are much more willing to deal with others … Things deal with if you are a bone athlete. I may look too far into the tea leaves, but this reasoning behind why Jaxson Dart was taken at the age of 25 instead of Sanders really feels telling:
Serve bald context why the #Giants Traced to get Jaxson Dart, from several sources:
• Cultural builder and competitor – The creation of Josh Allen in Therms of boys who want to play for him. He is perhaps 21 years old, but leads as if he is 35
• Elite Leadership skills: Dart was a … https://t.co/wdmjlqaqng pic.twitter.com/v1u4hsmoly
– Jordan Schultz (@schultz_RePort) April 25, 2025
The most meaningful thing to get out of this is the part where the source says that the giants felt that they were not so happy with Sanders in meetings and interviews. But again, teams are willing to tolerate sub of those things if you are extremely talented. Caleb Williams went the first general evite to be chosen about how he loses or his mentity in a dressing room. Nothing of things like that matters whether a man is overwhelmingly good, whether the athletics have about it.
Sanders, to be honest, does not really have the athletic second gear that most other boys have. Although we have seen boys like Joe Burrow and CJ Stud win Ensitar who are not overwhelming athletes, Sanders do not limit the pressure in the same way as those boys. Although I think Dart is a huge reach in the first round, several things can be true. Sanders is a better QB, but also not one teams that ties their franchise with his limited athletic advantage.
There is no conspiracy around the slide of Sanders. He was just always a late first to early second round player, which is fine.