NFL insider breaks down concern over Shedeur Sanders pre-throw routine, patting ball

Shedeur Sanders went viral during his pro day workout when he patted the ball prior to each throw. It’s a small thing and he’s certainly not the first high level quarterback to do it.

But that didn’t stop social media film analysts from questioning it. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky provided more context to the habit from Sanders as he watched his pro day.

It’s not a big flaw by any means. But that just means Sanders has to pick it up in other small areas.

“So one of the things I don’t know if you guys saw it, that went all over social media, was the conversation around Shedeur and patting the football,” Orlovsky said on Get Up. “If you saw some of the highlights from his workout, he’s a guy that pats the ball before he throws it, and there’s this big battle of, does it matter or not? Some of the all time, great quarterbacks patted the football. Aaron Rodgers patted the football. Tom Brady patted the football. John Elway patted the football. Dan Marino patted the football. 

“I think of the overwhelming thing is one, you better have elite arm strength to get away with it consistently in the league. That’s not something Shedeur has. Or you better have insane timing and accuracy, insane timing and ball placement, like Tom Brady did, and Shedeur has elements of that. So the whole patting the football craze that kind of took off after his workout, I do think is a little bit bigger than the reality of playing in the NFL.”

ESPN NFL insider Dan Graziano also revealed how teams evaluated Sanders before and after the Colorado quarterback’s pro day. Basically, nothing has changed either way.

“If you went into Friday’s workout feeling a certain way about Shedeur Sanders, your opinion probably did not change based on what happened there in Boulder on Friday,” Graziano added. “There are good things. There are a lot of good things to like about him that were on display. There are, as Dan said, I think there were some people that were like, you know, we have some questions about the arm strength. Can he answer those here? 

“And I don’t think that he did. It doesn’t mean he can’t do it at the next level, but what it means is, if you had concerns about him going into Friday, those probably were not allayed. And if you liked him enough to take him at, say, two or three on Friday, then that probably didn’t change either.”