Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ precipitous fall down the NFL Draft boards may have been prevented if he had taken special care in his pre-draft visit with the New York Giants.
Sanders was a projected first-round pick for many draft analysts. However, he ended up falling all the way down to the fifth-round when Cleveland took him with the 144th pick.
His last likely chance to be drafted in the first round came when the Giants traded up to the 25th overall pick.
Many believed the G-Men would take Sanders, but instead, they took Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart.
While it may have been a shock to some fans, it appears that the Giants lost interest in Sanders when he failed a test in the pre-draft process.
Sports Illustrated‘s Albert Breer appeared on Boston sports radio show Zolak and Bertrand on 98.5 The Sports Hub to explain what he had learned that doomed Sanders to fall further than expected.
Shedeur Sanders took issue with the New York Giants testing him in a tense pre-draft meeting
The Giants, coached by Brian Daboll (pictured), reportedly set Sanders up to fail in the meeting
‘He handled the process like he was a top-five (pick) lock,’ Breer told the station, adding that Sanders was so high on himself that he declined meetings with a number of teams he thought would have missed the chance to select him.
‘All these teams that either heard the bad stories from the other teams or that (he) refused to meet with or that had a bad experience with (him) personally … now the amount of teams that are willing to (draft him) has narrowed,’ Breer added.
Breer revealed that the Giants had some interest in him, but passed when he failed a test of his offensive play knowledge.
He said that Sanders was shown an ‘install’ – or a package of plays the team would be considering to add to their repertoire.
‘And there are mistakes intentionally put in the install. He didn’t catch them and got called on it, and it didn’t go well after that,’ Breer revealed, adding, ‘He was p***ed that they did that to him.’
But the Giants weren’t the only team that had an issue with Sanders’ attitude.
In a meeting at the NFL Combine, one team asked the Colorado quarterback to explain one of the ten interceptions he threw last season.
‘He throws a bad interception. It was a deep throw early in the game,’ Breer said. ‘They go in the meeting, they show the interception and they say, ‘What happened here?’ (Sanders responds,) ‘Well, I like to get into a rhythm earlier in the game.’
Sanders will now have to fight with five quarterbacks for three spots on the Browns’ roster
‘They get into it over that, and (Sanders’) conclusion is, ‘Well, maybe I’m not a fit for you.’
‘The person who told me that story was like, ‘I’ve never heard that before.’ It was in a combine interview when you’re just going from team to team trying to put your best foot forward.’
That poor impression led to the drop to the Browns, where Sanders faces a tough battle to try and crack the roster.
He’ll have to compete with veterans Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, and Kenny Pickett – as well as fellow draft pick Dillon Gabriel, who was selected two rounds earlier than Sanders.