Giants star angry NFL owners let Shedeur Sanders drop until fifth round: 'You can't knock his talent'

Fox News

01-05-2025

Shedeur Sanders' NFL Draft position has been a topic of heavy debate, and New York Giants receiver Malik Nabers explained why he's mad at how far the Colorado Buffaloes quarterback slipped down draft boards.
Watching Sanders not only fall past day one, but also day two of the draft rubbed Nabers the wrong way, and the second-year receiver told the "7PM in Brooklyn" podcast why.
"You don't do that to somebody like that," Nabers told New York Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero. "You can't knock his talent."
Nabers, the sixth overall pick by the Giants in 2024, went further with his analysis on Sanders' play.
"I heard a lot of things about he takes unnecessary sacks. He had a bad O-line. You know, he threw for a 70% [completion rate] with a bad O-line. Talk about his escaping the pocket. You can pull up plenty of clips of him escaping three or four tackles and throwing it down the field.
"Most of his receivers had seven to eight touchdowns. He played with Travis Hunter. He won the Biletnikoff. There's just some things you can't knock."
Reports surfaced during Sanders' slide that said the quarterback prospect, once believed to be a sure-fire first-round selection, had bad interviews with multiple teams, prompting them to to pass on him.
His personality off the field and his different passions and ventures may have deterred teams.
"We gotta stop making feelings with how people play linger," Nabers argued. "Yeah, he might have some things that he might say on camera, off the field. Whatever's dealing with that, that don't have to do with how he plays football.
"Everybody's got different personalities. You're never going to meet somebody that's got the same personality anywhere. We're all made different. So, for them to judge him on just the things that he says or how he carries himself. How he carries himself is all about how his dad raised him, and we all know Deion, bro. C'mon. We all know Deion."
The elder Sanders, the Hall of Fame, two-sport star who has coached Shedeur since his freshman year at Jackson State, is also someone people have pointed fingers at after watching his son fall down the draft board.
"They were just doing that to show how they were bigger than what he wanted to stand for," Nabers added. "I understand that, but you don't do that. Not to a kid like that that has been working their whole life and been told that Deion's kids are never going to be as good as him."
The Browns eventually pulled the trigger on Sanders, making him their fourth quarterback added to the depth chart this offseason. Oregon's Dillon Gabriel, who many had lower in rankings than Sanders, was taken in the third round of the draft by the Browns.
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