One narrative around Colorado quarterback and potential top-three 2025 NFL Draft pick Shedeur Sanders has hit a nerve with NFL reporter Josina Anderson.
Anderson vented her frustration on X, reflecting on one unnamed quarterback coach’s evaluation of Sanders at the NFL combine.
“I am disappointed to hear that a quarterback’s coach from a team drafting in the top 7 referred to Shedeur Sanders as coming off ‘brash’ and ‘arrogant’ in his team interview and making his assessment known to a number of people, per source,” Anderson wrote.
“I’m purposely not naming the team, as not to directly call the team out. I’m just sharing that this coach’s personal assessment is the direct opposite from how Sanders came across to many reporters in his press conference with the media at the Combine. Sanders appeared to go out of his way to acknowledge multiple media members, regardless if they were recognizable or not. He seemed cordial, polite, witty, thoughtful along with being confident (as many athletes are). Alternately, these observations were distinctly different from how another QB prospect came off to some in the media last year in Indy.”
Sanders talked to the media on Feb. 28 at the NFL combine, donning a backward-facing hat and a big smile throughout the questions, telling stories of training with Tom Brady, among others.
After the combine, Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda reported that teams were beginning to sour on Sanders, citing little improvement year over year for Sanders and “a little turned off by his antics since January.”
“According to league sources, said QB coach seems to have issue with ‘the culture’ of athletes who have broad fame and financial success before entering the NFL, and in their* opinions, appears to them to have a problem certain athletes — I’ll leave it at that,” Anderson said.
“This is how pre-Draft evaluations can get jacked because of evaluators who don’t seemingly possess the discernment to detect intangible traits that are connected to the will and drive to win without being a stat, or delineated in an analytics report. He’s literally Deion Sanders’ son, and despite growing up different from most, seemed fairly grounded. Hopefully any potential biases towards ‘the culture’ are being checked at the door, as not to unduly impact stock & business.
“The modern day college athlete is evolving, as is the scale of business and opportunities surrounding them before entering professional leagues. Adaption sounds necessary, and not just for Sanders.”
Negative rumors about prospects frequently emerge from the Combine for multitude of reasons, including some teams trying to create smokescreens on players they are in fact interested in drafting themselves.
Deion recently said that he warned Shedeur this would happen.
“I told him, ‘First of all, don’t believe nothing that they say. Because people are going to criticize you, so you fall to them. That’s how it is. It’s positioning right now,’” Deion, his college coach at Colorado, said.
“So don’t believe none of that. It’s positioning right now. But he’s speaking to the guys that make the moves, so he’s not listening to the media. He’s speaking to head coaches, GM’s and all of that of the first three teams, pretty much. Because that’s where we think he’s going to land, somewhere in there.”
ESPN’s Mel Kiper currently mocks Sanders to go No. 7 overall to the Jets, but he had also been rumored to go to the Giants at No. 3.
Miami’s Cam Ward seems to have broken free and is likely to be the first quarterback taken in the draft.
Statistically, Sanders improved from 2023 to 2024, throwing for 4,134 yards compared to 3,230 the year prior.
Sanders also hurled 37 touchdowns after tossing just 27 in 2023.
Colorado went 9-4 last season after a terrible 4-8 season the year prior.