The 2025 NFL draft ended Saturday, and the highlight of the weekend was Shedeur Sanders’ dramatic dropoff from potential first-round pick to the fifth round, when the Cleveland Browns took him 144th overall.
That’s when the tension building on the ESPN set in Green Bay, Wisconsin, finally combusted. For days, Mel Kiper Jr. — the longtime ESPN draft analyst — couldn’t hide his ‘disgust’ (his words) with the NFL for allowing his top-ranked quarterback in the 2025 class to slip into Day 3 of the draft. And he didn’t hold back after the Browns made their pick.
“This is not about, ‘Can you play the position?’ This is about, ‘Do we want you to play the position for us?’” fellow analyst Louis Riddick said.
“Why wouldn’t they?” Kiper interjected sharply.
“That’s a whole (different) discussion that we’ve had in many different ways for weeks and months now,” Riddick replied.
“Is he not one of the toughest quarterbacks you’ve ever seen?” Kiper asked.
“Mel … this isn’t about quarterback traits and quarterback characteristics, personal football (characteristics)” Riddick said. “That’s not about this. This is personal.”
“Has he had an off-the-field issue? No, he has not,” Kiper said.
Kiper and Riddick went back and forth (inaudibly, mostly) until Riddick countered with “Mel, the draft has spoken.”
Host Rece Davis tried to take control of the situation by offering his stance on the reasons for Sanders’ fall. Then Kiper did his patented move by referencing quarterbacks who had successful NFL careers after not being high draft picks.
“Boomer Esiason was not happy when he was a second-round pick,” Kiper said. “Tom Brady was not happy. They dropped. How’d they turn out?’
More talking over each other ensued until Kiper broke through with some sharp words for NFL front offices.
‘My point is, Rece, the NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks,’ Kiper said. ‘Clueless. They have no idea what they’re doing in terms of evaluating quarterbacks. That’s proof. There’s proof of that. They can say, ‘We know exactly what we’re talking about with quarterbacks.’ They don’t.”
‘Nobody’s batting a thousand here, Mel,’ Davis replied.
Kiper put together a coherent enough take about why teams should not have been turned off about the pre-draft hype surrounding Sanders.
“College kids now get paid,” Kiper said. “They’re professionals. They’re getting paid. They’re in commercials. They’re out there. You gotta deal with that. If you’re in the NFL, you have to deal with that. He’s saying whatever he’s saying behind closed doors. What’s he saying? ‘I wanna be the guy. I should be this. I should be that.’ Deion’s saying he’s the best player in the draft, the best quarterback, second-best (prospect) to Travis Hunter. Who isn’t? What quarterback out there didn’t think they should have been a high first-round pick?”
‘Again, nobody’s criticizing what happened,’ Davis said. ‘We’re saying he has to deal with the reality.’
Finally, Davis put a bow on the conversation and the analysts attempted to return to discussing the seven prospects that came off the board during the chaos.
