I suppose it is time we talk about Shedeur Sanders. For what felt like a month, the vast majority of NFL pundits screamed on television about the grave injustice done to Sanders by the racist, biased and colluding NFL. Then we saw a lackadaisical Cleveland Browns war room after they selected Sanders in the fifth round, thankfully keeping ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. from going on a hunger strike.

The Pittsburgh Steelers were at the center of all the Sanders talk. They were the team that was supposed to stop Sanders’ slide in the first round. Pittsburgh had other plans and instead went with defensive tackle Derrick Harmon. Then the third round came and as the grand conspiracy continued, Sanders was still on the board. Now is the time, right? Sanders to the Steelers. Nope, the Steelers went with Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson.

Advertisement

Once the fourth round rolled around, pundits were shouting from the rooftops. Kiper had Sanders as his top player available for 40 hours and it was going to happen, right? Wrong. Pittsburgh instead opted for edge defender Jack Sawyer. Oh and meanwhile, the other 31 teams did the same and passed on Sanders and the potential problems he could bring.

Thankfully, it all came to an end in the fifth round when the Browns brought Sanders watch to a merciful end. Now, everyone wants to spend even more time and energy speculating about why Sanders fell. Let me offer up my two cents as someone who has covered one of the most talented, yet entitled players in the NFL. Antonio Brown. Brown’s skills weren’t elite as rookie. He worked hit butt off after being dismissed by the draft community and turned himself into one of the best wide receivers of all time. It also turned him into a raging narcissist with a fragile ego. This was what ultimately what cut his career short.

Brown didn’t enter the league with this mentality but Sanders is. But I really feel like the best thing that could have happened to Sanders was to fall to the fifth round. Instead of being THE quarterback on the Browns, he’s just A quarterback on the Browns. It’s also going to be a make-or-break for Sanders as this will be his first time on a football team where his dad isn’t his head coach and orchestrating every step of his development.

There was no grand conspiracy against Sanders. If you are talented enough, a team will take a shot on you no matter how much baggage you bring to the team. We see it year after year. Sanders didn’t bring the talent as a rookie to warrant a high pick and all the potential distractions.

This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: 2025 NFL draft: Steelers made the right call on not picking Shedeur Sanders