The NFL draft is a meat grinder of dreams, and this year, Shedeur Sanders, the flashy Colorado quarterback, got chewed up in a way nobody saw coming. On April 28, Boomer Esiason, a former NFL signal-caller turned WFAN radio host, dropped a bombshell that’s still rippling through the league. Multiple team owners, he claimed, ordered their front offices to wipe Sanders clean off their draft boards. Not a demotion. Not a red flag. A total blackout.
Sanders, son of NFL legend Deion Sanders, was no scrub. He threw for 3,926 yards and 35 touchdowns in his last college season, numbers that scream first-round talent. Scouts raved about his arm strength and poise in the pocket. Yet, when the draft dust settled on April 27, Sanders wasn’t just picked late—he plummeted to a spot that left analysts scratching their heads. Teams passed on him like he was radioactive.
Esiason, speaking on his WFAN morning show, didn’t mince words. He said he’d talked to three NFL personnel insiders over the draft weekend, and the word was clear: owners, not coaches or GMs, were behind the snub. The directive wasn’t about Sanders’ tape—it was personal. His attitude, especially during the pre-draft circus, rubbed the wrong people raw. At the NFL Combine in February, Sanders reportedly boasted about being a culture-changer, the guy to flip a locker room’s vibe. Confidence is one thing, but to some, it reeked of entitlement.
The combine chatter wasn’t the only strike. Sanders skipped key pre-draft workouts, a move that’s a gamble for anyone not named Peyton Manning. For a quarterback without generational hype, it was a gut punch to his stock. Teams lean hard on those sessions to gauge work ethic, coachability, even how a guy handles a whiteboard. Sanders’ absence left a void, and whispers about his commitment filled it.
The fallout was brutal. By draft day, some teams didn’t even have Sanders listed as a prospect. Esiason’s sources confirmed what the slide suggested: owners had seen enough—or, maybe, too much. The quarterback who once seemed destined for a top-10 pick was left twisting in the wind.
No owner has gone on record to confirm the blacklist. No team has issued a statement. The NFL’s official draft reports don’t mention Sanders’ off-field issues, sticking to stats and measurables. But the numbers don’t lie: Sanders’ draft position was a free fall, landing him far below where his college film and raw talent should’ve placed him.
Sanders’ camp hasn’t commented on Esiason’s claims. Deion Sanders, his father and Colorado’s head coach, stayed quiet on draft weekend, a stark contrast to his usual bravado. The league, meanwhile, moves on. The draft is done, rosters are set, and Shedeur Sanders, wherever he landed, will have to prove he’s more than a name—or a problem.