The New Orleans Saints passed on Shedeur Sanders like every other NFL team did through the 2025 NFL draft’s first four rounds; the Saints spent six picks before Sanders went to the Cleveland Browns at No. 144 overall, including a second-round choice invested in Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough. He was a popular pick for the Saints in mock drafts, so why did the Colorado passer fall so far down the board?

This poor interview experience with the New York Giants may explain it. The New York Post’s Erich Richter reports that both Sanders and the Giants left that private meeting feeling like they weren’t a good fit together:

The former Colorado star reportedly failed to identify errors in his mock playbook install set as part of the Giants’ pre-draft interview process, which is common practice in the NFL, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.

“The Giants one, they give players an install, and there are mistakes intentionally put in the install,” Breer said via 98.5 The Sports Hub. “He didn’t catch them and got called on it, and it didn’t go well after that. … He was pissed that they did that to him.”

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That lines up with a report from Todd McShay for The Ringer, who said, “Shedeur didn’t have a great interview with Brian Daboll in a private visit. An install package came in. Preparation wasn’t there for it. [He] got called out on it. Didn’t like that. Brian didn’t appreciate him not liking it.”

So did the Saints also have an experience that soured them on Sanders? We can’t say. It was never reported that he met with the team on one of their 30 official visits like he did with the Giants. What’s clear is that the Saints showed significantly less public interest in Sanders throughout the process leading up to the draft. Beyond some contact at the NFL Scouting Combine back in February, they only sent a couple of position coaches to his pro day, which didn’t include head coach Kellen Moore (who, we should note, also didn’t make the trip for Shough’s pro day).

Maybe they did meet with Sanders and were more transparent about what they expected going into that interview. But until something is credibly reported, we’re only speculating. Either way the Saints had six opportunities to draft Sanders and they chose to go with another player every time, a decision that left his father and coach Deion Sanders shaking his head in disappointment. When asked for comment on Sanders’ slide after the draft, Saints GM Mickey Loomis only had a brief response: “I was surprised he wasn’t taken earlier.”

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: NFL draft: Shedeur Sanders was ‘pissed’ at NFC team after interview