“With the 144th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns select Shedeur Sanders, quarterback, the University of Colorado.”
That one sentence on Saturday afternoon ended a surprising three-day saga that left many bewildered, frustrated and angry.
During the regular season, Sanders was a Heisman candidate and projected to be a top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Both were reasonable expectations based on the years he spent leading the Jackson St. Tigers and the Colorado Buffaloes.
When Coach Prime took over at Jackson St., the Tigers were coming off of a 4-8 record and hadn’t had a winning season since 2013 when they went 7-4.
Shedeur led them to an overall record of 26-6 (including 3-3 in the Covid-shortened season that took place in Spring 2021) while throwing for 6,983 yards with 70 TDs and 14 INTs.
Then he, his father, Deion, and Travis Hunter made the cross-country trip to Colorado and took over a program that was 1-11 and hadn’t had a winning season since 2016 when the team went 10-4.
Critics questioned whether he could duplicate his success at the FBS level, but they conveniently forgot that Shedeur was a four-star QB and Top-40 player out of the football hotbed of Texas.
In his first season in Boulder, Sanders threw for 3,230 yards, 27 TDs and 3 INTs. The team went 4-8 but Shedeur silenced the critics questioning whether he could play against big programs.
This past season, Shedeur threw for 4,134 yards, 37 TDs and 10 INTs while completing 74% of his passes, leading the Buffaloes to a 9-4 record and ending nine years of losing by a frustrated program and its fan base. Even more impressively, Shedeur finished his college career with a passing completion rate of 70.1%, making him number one overall in FBS history.
In addition, he was named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award winner and finished 8th in the Heisman vote.
Leading up to the NFL Combine, Shedeur was positioned as the second-best overall QB behind Miami’s Cam Ward and projected to be a top 10 Draft pick, with some mentioning him in the top 3-5.
But after he announced that he wouldn’t throw at the Combine, the negative narratives began simmering.
This moment also exemplified how many, especially the media, misinterpret (both purposely and mistakenly) the confidence of Black athletes as arrogance.
Many times that confidence is positioned as arrogance to paint a false narrative about a Black athlete, which is exactly what happened to Shedeur during this year’s NFL Draft.
Critics used keywords to construct the narrative, including “polarizing”, “controversial” and others.
At the combine, Shedeur answered a reporter’s question about his development under Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and how Shurmur’s NFL background prepared him for the league.
He praised Shurmur and mentioned that he was able to work with six offensive coordinators during his college career and “made it work.”
But then he “dared” to mention his success in leading two programs to winning seasons.
