‘This is disgusting’: Shedeur Sanders victim of ‘rotten’ NFL Draft prank as ‘unprecedented’ slide hits new low

The Shedeur Sanders discourse will roll on into Day 3 in shocking scenes after the Colorado quarterback fell into the fourth round of the NFL Draft.

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While it wasn’t all that surprising to see Sanders drop out of the first round, the biggest shock of the Draft came when Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel was taken ahead of Sanders by the Cleveland Browns in the third round.

Gabriel was widely considered a fourth to fifth-round prospect while Sanders had a late first to second-round grade from most Draft analysts.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, who had been linked to Sanders before the Draft, had another chance to take him in the third round but instead opted for running back Kaleb Johnson.

The New Orleans Saints, meanwhile, took NFL-ready Tyler Shough early in the second round while high-upside swing Jalen Milroe even had his name called by the Seattle Seahawks.

ESPN’s Mel Kiper, who had Sanders as his top quarterback in the class, labelled the slide “disgusting”.

“I really have nothing to say. I think it’s disgusting. That’s all I can say,” he said.

Former NFL defensive tackle Booger McFarland said there is no other explanation other than it has to be “about more than football”.

“He’s the best pure passer you can draft,” McFarland added.

“When you start to see developmental projects like Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel – and nothing against those guys, but they’re not nearly the player that Shedeur Sanders is. When they go before him, the only thing you can say is that it’s more than football.”

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Only adding to Sanders’ misfortune, the Colorado quarterback was the victim of a cruel prank call.

A clip of the moment showed his brother, Shilo talking to the camera, when all a group of family members started shouting, believing that an NFL team rep was on the phone.

Sanders had a big smile on his face as he took the phone and started talking to the person on the other end as family and friends — along with the camera — crowded around him, thinking this would be the moment he’d been waiting for.

“I’m good, been waiting on you,” Sanders said.

However, things quickly turned when the caller told Sanders that he’d “have to wait a little longer,” as Sanders’ demeanor changed, seemingly realizing something was amiss.

He could be heard asking the people around him, “what does that mean?”

“I don’t know what that was,” Sanders added. “Nobody got this number, though.”

The confusion quickly spread throughout the group in the clip.

The Twitch stream was eventually ended and a recording of it did not appear on Sanders’ streaming account.

EXPLAINED: Why Shedeur Sanders has tumbled down draft boards

Earlier in the day, ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who described Sanders’ fall as “unprecedented”, threw out a wild hypothesis that Sanders could end up with the Cowboys, Cardinals or Seahawks — none of whom have been connected to Sanders and all of which look set at the quarterback position.

Obviously Seattle is out of the picture after taking Milroe, while Schefter was also generally speaking about the possibility of Dallas or Arizona taking Sanders on Day 2.

Instead, he has fallen all the way to the final day of the Draft and at this point could be an option for any team that thinks he is a solid back-up to their starter.

But the question for any team drafting Sanders as their back-up is whether it is worth the media circus.

“When we look at the teams that would consider him, I think the Giants obviously preferred Jaxson Dart. I think the Browns preferred Jaxson Dart. I think the Saints absolutely preferred Jaxson Dart,” Schefter said on ESPN ahead of the second round.

“[Louisville product] Tyler Shough is gonna figure in there tonight and I won’t be surprised if Tyler Shough goes ahead of Shedeur Sanders tonight. Can you imagine if Jaxson Dart and Tyler Shough both end up being drafted ahead of Shadeur Sanders?

“I think there are not a lot of teams that love the idea of drafting Shedeur. And I think now we’re at the point where unless he goes in the third round, No. 83, to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had a discussion about him on the board at No. 21, I think we may get a team that we never connected to him. And I don’t know what team that is. But I’ll give you some examples right now, and again I’m just hypothesising.”

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Given the circus that will inevitably surround Sanders, it’s worth wondering whether any of the teams Schefter named as potential wildcards would want to put up with all of that for a quarterback who doesn’t have a path to starting.

“A team that has him high on their board that never thought he would be available in Round 2. The Seattle Seahawks, the Arizona Cardinals and — hold onto your head — the Dallas Cowboys,” Schefter added.

“I’m not telling you any of these teams are going to take him. What I am saying is that it will not surprise me if all of a sudden a team that takes him tonight is a team we just didn’t even connect to him and had him high enough on the board that when he was available at their spot, they couldn’t pass him up.”

This article first appeared on The New York Postand was reproduced with permission.

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