Mel Kiper\u2019s consistent harping on Shedeur Sanders\u2019 slide during the 2025 NFL Draft ticked some viewers off.<\/p>\n
It also ticked off Rece Davis<\/a>, who\u00a0said yelling into the void about the league is a meaningless act, and tried to bring Kiper back to what was at hand on the ESPN broadcast.<\/p>\n However, Davis, who hosted the network\u2019s coverage of Rounds 4-7 after doing ABC for Rounds 1-3 on Thursday and Friday, insists there is no animosity between the coworkers during a recent appearance on OutKick\u2019s\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t @ Me with Dan Dakich.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fine. I didn\u2019t even know there was an issue until I started getting texts like you were saying,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of part and parcel of what we do. Sometimes, for the analyst\u2019s own good and for the good of the show, you challenge their position. Mel\u2019s great. I love working with Mel. And he\u2019s the reason the draft is what it is, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n Rece Davis of ESPN speaks during media day before the championship game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Georgia World Congress Center on January 18, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Getty Images<\/p>\n During the second day of the draft, ESPN\u2019s lead analyst couldn\u2019t comprehend the slide <\/a>of the polarizing former Colorado quarterback.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s disgusting,\u201d Kiper said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand what the heck\u2019s going on with this. Fifth player on my board, it\u2019s never happened in 47 years where a player that high has dropped this far into the fourth round at quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n And even after Sanders finally was selected by the Browns during the fifth round as the No. 144 overall pick, Kiper still couldn\u2019t come back down to earth, calling the NFL \u201cclueless.\u201d<\/p>\n Wild TV here with Mel Kiper, Rece Davis, and Louis Riddick. <\/p>\n Louis Riddick: “Mel, the draft has spoken.”<\/p>\n Rece Davis: “Yelling at the NFL about it is not productive!” <\/p>\n Mel Kiper: “The NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks! Clueless!..” pic.twitter.com\/QRkSXINr67<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 26, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n Mel Kiper continues to argue for Shedeur Sanders during the NFL draft. X @awfulannouncing<\/p>\n \u201cThe NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks! Clueless!..\u201d Kiper said.<\/p>\n Louis Reddick chimed in, concluding his argument against Kiper with: \u201cThe draft has spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis then said, \u201cThat\u2019s the key, Mel. It\u2019s not putting a value judgement on whether those picks were right or wrong\u2026Whether you like it or you don\u2019t like it. Whether they are fair or unfair, you have to deal with it. And now Shedeur Sanders has to deal with it\u2026.And I think yelling at the NFL about it is not productive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, and I\u2019m not doing that thing that Pete Thamel accuses me of, where I say two things nice about somebody and then offer a critique or something,\u201d Davis continued on the Outkick podcast. \u201cBut, the reason there were\u2026whatever the number was in Detroit is largely due to what Mel\u2019s done for the draft. And Mel\u2019s job is to make his rankings of the players, and defend them. And I didn\u2019t mind him disagreeing, and I don\u2019t mind him saying anything he wanted to say when we\u2019re there. But I thought that as a group, the part we were overlooking was the old Occam\u2019s razor philosophy \u2014 the most likely explanation for something is probably correct. We don\u2019t know for sure.<\/p>\n Rece Davis fires back at Mel Kiper, saying yelling at the NFL over Shedeur Sanders\u2019 big slide in the draft is pointless. X @awfulannouncing<\/p>\n \u201cBut it was almost certain that at that point in the draft that something had happened in the pre-draft process involving Shedeur Sanders that was keeping teams from taking him. Now, I think it\u2019s a reasonable debate if you say he\u2019s not a top-five quarterback on tape at this time. I\u2019m not sure that it\u2019s reasonable that he\u2019s not a first or second-round type guy. That seems a little unreasonable to me. So, if you go beyond that, then something else probably happened. And my point was I didn\u2019t think we were giving that the proper credence. If teams are drafting a guy they\u2019re not 1000% sold on is going to be their franchise quarterback\u2026 then you have to bigger than your problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanders certainly wasn\u2019t bigger than his posed problems, from dealing with his outspoken father Deion Sanders to botching some of his NFL interviews due to a lack of attention to detail. <\/a><\/p>\n Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders takes part in passing drills during Colorado\u2019s NFL football pro day Friday, April 4, 2025. AP<\/p>\n Still, the draft guru was a big believer in Sanders that he had him ranked his best quarterback entering the draft. <\/p>\n Kiper ranked Sanders as the No. 5 overall player on his big board \u2014 one spot ahead of fellow quarterback Cam Ward,\u00a0who went No. 1 overall<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t