Shedeur Sanders Stars in NFL Draft's First Round By Being Rejected

Seven-decade-plus spoiler: In Waiting for Godot, the 1953 masterwork by playwright Samuel Beckett, the much-discussed title character never actually turns up.

Likewise, Shedeur Sanders, the ultra-buzzy quarterback from the University of Colorado Boulder, didn't appear in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for April 24's first round of the NFL Draft. But somehow, he still dominated the proceedings even though no team actually selected him.

This bizarre twist was months in the making. Quarterbacks tend to be the focus of attention during the draft, and most pro-football experts regarded Sanders to be the second-best available to the 32 franchises making picks, behind only the consensus number-one choice, the University of Miami's Cam Ward. Indeed, ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper, the hair-dye-boosting motormouth who's made prognostication of the event his entire career, identified Sanders as the fifth-highest prospect overall, one spot ahead of Ward. But plenty of Kiper's competition disagreed, predicting that Shedeur might tumble to the latter portion of round one.

The debate over this possibility was supercharged by Shedeur's celebrity. His father, CU Boulder head coach Deion Sanders, remains among college football's most riveting and divisive characters. He spent months telling anyone and everyone that his pass-tossing son would set the NFL world aflame. (Safety Shilo Sanders, Deion's other CU-veteran son, is also draft-available, but has generated much less heat.)

Shedeur has been equally effusive in praise of his own talents, boasting that he is capable of radically improving the fortunes of any squad wise enough to select him.

The contrast between Shedeur's self-assessment and the widely varied opinions of experts battled for attention throughout the pre-draft process. Note that yesterday morning, the top sports headline on the New York Times website read "Shedeur Sanders, the 2025 NFL Draft’s biggest name, is also its biggest mystery."

Night of the Cornerback

This scenario translated to local fans, too, despite plenty of competition. Shedeur's CU teammate, Travis Hunter, a two-way player who recently brought home a little tchotchke known as the Heisman Trophy, was also on the block and garnered plenty of spotlight time after declaring that he wasn't interested in inking with any outfit that wanted to limit him to a single position on the field.

And that's not to mention the Denver Broncos, whose first-rounder was an enormous talking point among the Mile High City's sports pundits, who wondered how head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton would use it. Dreamers wondered if the Broncos would move up to grab coveted Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, stay put to bring aboard University of North Carolina ball handler Omarion Hampton, or somehow find a way to sign up premier tight ends Tyler Warren of Penn State or Colston Loveland of Michigan.

In the end, the Broncos did none of these things, opting instead for Jahdae Barron, a University of Texas product. Barron is thought to be a fine talent, but he plays cornerback, a position that didn't strike many fans as a top area of need; Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain III anchors one side of the field, while his opposite number, Riley Moss, has shown more than a few sparks over time. A sizzling selection it was not.

Hunter's draft night generated a lot more chatter. The Jacksonville Jaguars made a mega-trade, moving up from the fifth slot to the second, to nab him second overall, just after Ward went to the Titans, as expected. Resplendent in a pink suit that seemed to pop off the screen, Hunter danced with delight seconds before the obligatory hug with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and his smile was supernova-bright. Expect to see him snagging touchdown receptions and snatching interceptions for many years to come.

And Sanders? As seen above, the first shot of him shared by ESPN during its broadcast focused on an empty couch in the Texas home where he and family members, including Deion, had gathered. Over the hours that followed, he made actual, rather than figurative, appearances as he milled among loved ones, a big grin on his face, while the network's on-air crew speculated about where he might land. The New York Giants? Nope — and to add insult to injury, the G-Men used their second first-round pick on a different quarterback, the University of Mississippi's Jaxson Dart. The Las Vegas Raiders? Sorry — they took Jeanty (and the Los Angeles Chargers went for Hampton, meaning both backs are on the rosters of Broncos division rivals). The New Orleans Saints. Uh-uh. The Pittsburgh Steelers, still waiting for a commitment from mega-diva Aaron Rogers, whose own wait to be drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 2005 is the stuff of legend? Tough luck.

After the Steelers opted for Oregon's Derrick Harmon, the possibility that Shedeur would tumble out of the first round became very real — and it happened. But that doesn't mean he's disappeared from the public eye. Rounds two and three of the draft take place this evening, April 25, and storyline one still is: Where will Sanders finally go?

Samuel Beckett would be amused.