Boomer Esiason: NFL owners ordered teams not to draft Shedeur Sanders

The 2025 NFL Draft slide of Shedeur Sanders will forever be one the more stunning storylines in the history of the three-day event. Sanders, once thought to be a surefire first round pick, slipped all the way to the fifth round, taken 144th overall by the Cleveland Browns.

Since then, multiple reports have stated that Sanders’ handling of the pre-draft process contributed to his fall. Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason added Monday that multiple NFL owners ordered teams to take the former Colorado quarterback off their draft boards.

Boomer says some NFL owners ordered teams to take Shedeur Sanders off their draft boards:@7BOOMERESIASON @GioWFAN @WFANmornings pic.twitter.com/5BtvKsNpAa

— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) April 28, 2025

“Shedeur Sanders torpedoed himself,” Esiason said on WFAN Sports Radio. “His attitude off the field at the Combine; his dad didn’t help him either. He was on podcasts talking, ‘this is my son, if I can get him to where I want to get him to, I’m gonna do that.’ But when you listen to this kid talk right prior or at the Combine about, ‘if you want a new culture in your locker room, I’m the guy to do that, I can turn it around,’ — I mean, he’s very high on himself.

“And I think he was very off putting to many coaches and general managers in the league. I’m telling you right now and I know this after talking to three different personnel people in the NFL this weekend, they didn’t even have him on their board. They took him off and they took him off because the owner said, ‘take him off. I don’t want that guy. I don’t want this entitled person on our team.’ And I don’t blame them.”

NFL insider: Media didn’t get ‘complete picture,’ teams scared of ‘everything around’ Shedeur Sanders

ESPN’s Dan Graziano had another theory as to why Sanders slid in the draft: his father Deion Sanders. Based on what Graziano discussed with sources during the draft, Shedeur Sanders was potentially mis-evaluated going into the weekend.

Graziano pointed out how some could’ve been afraid of criticism from Deion Sanders and camp for putting any negative reviews on Shedeur Sanders and what he could bring to the table. The most negativity people saw with Shedeur Sanders during the draft were the anonymous quotes criticizing the quarterback’s pre-draft interviews.

“I texted with a lot of people Saturday morning, like the topic of why this is happening, why he’s still available,” Graziano said on Get Up. “I had a couple people say to me, to the point about media, you guys weren’t getting a complete picture, because the theory was that people inside these buildings were kind of scared to give their honest opinion of them because of the potential for criticism. 

“The potential for Deion and everything that’s around Shedeur to kind of come down on them. So, I think we might have got some bad information in terms of how teams looked at him. But I think at some point, Friday night into Saturday, it started to snowball where teams are kind of sitting back and think, ‘well somebody else will probably take him.’”

Browns GM talks selection of Shedeur Sanders

Browns general manger Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski eventually pulled the trigger on Sanders, welcoming anything that comes with the quarterback. That includes any potential noise with Coach Prime.

“I’d just say it was probably a mixture of like, you know, gratitude, relief and determination,” Berry said of Sanders’ reaction on Saturday following the conclusion of Day 3 of the draft. “That would probably be the best way to characterize it. But he’s certainly ready to go.”

On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report.