Ranking 8 Shedeur Sanders landing spots, including chaos picks that would shake up NFL Draft
As the world turns in a never-ending march to the 2025 NFL Draft, a high-level personnel talent evaluator offered this on Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders this week:
[Alabama quarterback] Jalen Milroe might be the third quarterback off the board next week. Don't count that out."
To which I asked, After [Miami's] Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders?"
And he replied, No. After Ward and [Mississippi quarterback Jaxson] Dart. Milroe is the third quarterback and then Sanders is the fourth off the board."
We're closing in on the final moments before the 2025 NFL Draft and Sanders' fate continues to be the most compelling storyline in this cycle. Most franchises across the league have no idea where he'll be selected, despite having very concrete assessments of where Sanders will fit on their final draft board.
The general assessment as of this week: Sanders is no longer considered a potential pick inside the top three of the 2025 draft. All of this leads to a multitude of possibilities, starting with the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 6., the New Orleans Saints ant No. 9 and so on.
With that in mind, here's the current case for each franchise in play for Shedeur Sanders, ranking them according to the rationale for selecting him in the 2025 NFL Draft ...
1. Sensible fit: New Orleans Saints (No. 9 overall pick)At this point, take the Derek Carr shoulder surgery reports with a grain of salt. Every single indication I've gotten is that the team is not behind the floating of this information. The timing of the leak is also very odd, coming on the heels of a rising tide of belief that New Orleans is considering Sanders with the ninth overall draft pick. This was something I called more than a month ago, on the first day of free agency. Not because I'd heard it from the team but because the analysis of the situation made sense.
Carr is not long for New Orleans. His dead cap drops to a manageable $59.6 million after the 2025 season. With his current level of production, health and age, it makes complete sense for the team to jettison him as a post June 1 release in 2026. That reality necessitates a successor. I don't think Spencer Rattler has convinced anyone in the organization that he's the answer. That alone opens the door for a quarterback pick.
So why Sanders? I think two factors weight heavily here. First, head coach Kellen Moore has experience making the most with an accurate quarterback with a limited athletic profile (see: Dak Prescott). And second, Sanders' arm limitations would be greatly reduced playing in domes and warm climates. Half of the Saints' games are in domes and the other divisional road games are in Atlanta (dome), Tampa Bay (warm) and Carolina (warm). At the very least, that's 11 to 12 games of favorable conditions for his profile. That makes him a very sensible fit for the Saints, who can also use the cap relief of a rookie quarterback deal to their advantage once Carr is off the roster.
And one weird conspiratorial anomaly: Moore has spent time with multiple quarterbacks in this draft cycle, but skipped the Colorado pro day when Sanders worked out. It seems like an odd exclusion to look at essentially all the top quarterbacks but send a skeleton crew of two assistant coaches to watch Sanders in Boulder. That looks like a team purposely avoiding showcasing interest.
2. Pressing need fit: Pittsburgh Steelers (21st overall pick)This math isn't hard. The Steelers have the 21st overall pick and nothing in the second round. They're basically going to get one shot at one of the top quarterbacks in this draft or some middle-round scraps later in the process. As things stand now, I think there's a long view in play in Pittsburgh. While I expect they will ultimately end up with Aaron Rodgers as their starter in 2025, I do believe there is a parallel plan for a starting quarterback in 2026 and beyond. And I think a very real part of that was hosting Sanders for a recent private visit where the staff spent the balance of the day getting to know him as a person. The bottom line here is simple: So long as Rodgers is in the fold, the Steelers need a long-term answer at quarterback in 2026 and beyond. And I believe Rodgers would be OK mentoring Sanders in 2025 if that's what ultimately transpired.
The lone complication is what becomes of this situation if Rodgers pulls a late-career Kurt Warner next season and ultimately keeps Sanders on the bench in 2026, too (see the Arizona Cardinals, when they drafted Matt Leinart 10th overall in 2006). I think the Steelers cross that bridge if they actually come to it.
At this point, with no starting QB on the roster of note, drafting Sanders and then having Rodgers be too successful in 2025 is a Champagne problem. The Steelers would welcome it after the years of quarterback abyss that they have been dealing with.
Let's get to a little bit of housecleaning. The seemingly late" private workout of Sanders is really an indication of absolutely nothing. It's been on the books for weeks, if not longer. The only reason it ended up happening in mid-April was because of scheduling. Sanders wanted his private workouts to occur after his (very late) pro day at Colorado, and it put the Giants into a bit of a pinch in terms of how their scheduling worked. If the Giants could have done the workout in March with him, they would have. But that wasn't Sanders' preference, so it went this way.
Despite media speculation, it's not a sudden development with the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, with ownership stepping in and demanding a Sanders workout. I've been told straight-up from someone inside the organization that absolutely is not what happened. And another team confirmed that Sanders didn't want to schedule his private workouts until after the first week of April. So let's relax about the Giants suddenly pinning him on the board at the third overall pick.
Yes, the Giants have definitely been watching a lot of Colorado football this season. You can absorb that as interest in either Sanders or wideout/cornerback Travis Hunter. Some element of their scouting department has attended virtually every Colorado game this season, likely with the knowledge that they'd have a high pick in the 2025 draft and that both Hunter and Sanders would be in play at the top of this upcoming draft.
So what does this all really showcase? Frankly, it's hard to say. I believe if Hunter was on the board at No. 3 overall in this draft, the Giants would select him. Conversely, I don't think they will take Sanders at that pick. If Sanders slides, I do not rule out that they'll attempt to engineer a move up from No. 34 overall to get him. Nothing about their current quarterback room, with Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston sitting atop the QB depth chart, leads me to believe either player will be a starter for the Giants in 2026. That keeps Sanders in play for a potential trade-up scenario near the end of the first round.
4. Head coach fit: Cleveland Browns (No. 2 overall pick, candidate to trade into the end of Round 1)The Browns remain such a weird candidate for a quarterback. Let's go ahead and write off Deshaun Watson. I believe he's cooked in Cleveland, won't see a snap in the 2025 season, and will be effectively off the team one year from now. The rest of the quarterback depth chart is 40-year-old veteran Joe Flacco, who can still start and be at least a middling, albeit turnover prone, option for Cleveland. Between Flacco and backup quarterback Kenny Pickett, there's less than $7 million invested into the two quarterbacks who could actually play in 2025. Just reading the green financially, I think that keeps a rookie quarterback in play - either as a trade-up scenario at the end of the first round, or at the first pick in the second round, No. 33 overall. The question is whether Sanders is that potential trade-up target.
Sanders' arm strength might not fit the December/January conditions of Cleveland, but his style of play can most definitely fit head coach Kevin Stefanski, who has shown the ability to do some damage with accurate - but less than super athletic - quarterbacks. Frankly, I think his system and success with others in the past overlaps well with Sanders' profile. I just don't think there's a chance in hell that it lines up well enough to sacrifice the No. 2 overall pick for him. Instead, it's a far likelier scenario that if Sanders falls in the draft, the Browns entertain trading up to get him.
Here's one caveat: Elements of the Browns' personnel department are very intrigued by the skillset and potential upside of Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. If that wasn't the case, I likely would have elevated the Browns higher on this list of Sanders suitors. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Browns end up with either Sanders or Milroe near the end of the first round.
Let's start with this: there's just no way to look at the Geno Smith contract extension and not recognize it as basically a one-year deal with a trap door exit after the 2025 season. Smith got a nice 2025 payday in exchange for giving the Raiders an ability to cut him with an extremely manageable dead cap number of $18.5 million in 2026. In my experience, well-run franchises do these kinds of deals with a sense of purpose. They want options on the table. The Raiders guaranteed Smith enough money to take his career cash earnings over $100 million - which is amazing considering the course of his career - while preserving their ability to also look at other QBs.
Do I think Las Vegas will take Sanders at No. 6 overall? No, I don't.
Could they get involved if Sanders slides down the first round? Yes. Absolutely.
Normally, the No. 37 overall pick trading into the first round would mean moving mountains. But as a high-level longtime evaluator told me this week, the picks from Nos. 15 to 75 overall are going to be wildly unpredictable. It's realistic that some team could land a player at 37th overall who is 18th on their board. That helps the Raiders in this respect.
Beyond that point, the real traction here is that minority owner Tom Brady is carrying considerable weight inside the Raiders franchise and has known Sanders since he was a teenager. He's worked with him directly at paramount moments in Sanders' development. No other team can really say that. That matters. Not enough to sacrifice the No. 6 pick on overdrafting a future quarterback with limitations, but certainly enough to take a chance on him if he starts sliding in the draft. Frankly, I'd feel better about the Raiders' (read: Brady's) assessment on Sanders than any other franchise out there.
6. Slide opportunity fit: Los Angeles Rams (No. 26 overall pick)Here's the thing with the Rams: They know they need to get a quarterback on the roster who is capable of taking over when Matthew Stafford is either injured or retires. They have learned that lesson in 2022 and beyond, when Stafford's production has been limited by his health. Certainly he's a Hall of Fame quarterback, but he hasn't hit 4,000 yards passing or more than 24 passing touchdowns since the 2021 season. That's a lifetime in the NFL's 17-game season and it telegraphs a reality that Stafford is in the sunset of his career. That means the Rams needs someone on the roster to develop, and it sure as hell isn't 33-year-old Jimmy Garoppolo.
With that in mind, the Rams are a team that has to be open to draft opportunities. They don't have a second-round pick in this draft, so they have to seriously consider any quarterback they like at the 26th overall pick. Maybe that's Mississippi's Jaxson Dart. Maybe it's someone else. But if Sanders is there, there's a lot of data to suggest that head coach Sean McVay could work wonders with a hyper accurate quarterback who can spend at least the 2025 season learning the offense and observing Stafford. It certainly wouldn't be a pick for the 2025 season, but there is evidence of taking players to stash for future purposes (see: Blake Corum in the 2024 draft). Given all the dynamics, if Sanders slides, the Rams can't be ignored at No. 26.
7/8. Draft chaos fit(s): Arizona Cardinals (No. 16th overall) and Miami Dolphins (No. 13th overall)I don't want to spend an excess of time on the wild" draft destinations on Sanders, since they rarely materialize. But I have to at least factor it in after the Atlanta Falcons blew the minds of everyone across the league and selected Michael Penix Jr. No. 8 overall in 2024 after signing Kirk Cousins to a huge free-agent deal the previous March. Sometimes, team owners get involved and things don't make a lot of sense. It's a wild X-factor that none of us can typically account for because it usually happens late in the draft process.
There is certainly a chance that ownership gets involved with the draft pick of both the Cardinals and Dolphins heading into next week. I think Arizona's Michael Bidwill knows that Kyler Murray's contract becomes extremely dumpable after 2025 and may be inclined to push a successor. Murray is on a very thin platform in Arizona. If he were made available via trade next week, I wouldn't be shocked. On the same side of the ledger, it's hard to believe that the Dolphins don't have lingering concern about whether starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa can stay on the field with his history of concussion issues. At some point, you have to backstop risk. Dolphins owner Stephen Ross surely understands this with his real estate empire. In this circumstance, the Dolphins would be backstopping Tagovailoa to give him a reliable backup with long-term potential, while ultimately getting to the end of the 2026 season with the option of cutting him with only a $34.8 million dead cap charge. Is it likely? No. But the Falcons undercutting their own Cousins signing one year ago wasn't, either. So we can't exclude either scenario for the Cardinals and Dolphins.