Colorado Buffalo quarterback Chedure Sanders was not selected in the first round of Thursday’s NFL Draft.
Sanders, 23, was one of the most polarized outlooks in this year’s NFL Draft. Many mock drafts predicted that Sanders would land with the Pittsburgh Steelers on the 21st pick in the first round, but opinions ran entirely from the third overall to the first round.
The Steelers eventually took Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon in that spot.
The only other quarterback filmed after the first overall pick come Ward in the first round was Ole Miss Jackson Dirt. The New York Giants traded for their 25th pick and chose DART.
Shedale Sanders, the son of NFL Hall of Fame Deion Sanders, Buffaloes head coach Shedur Sanders, was the big 12 offensive player in his senior campaign in Colorado.
Sanders began his college career in 2021 at Jackson State, a historically black university, when his father was head coach. Two seasons after the Tigers, he went after his father to Colorado, where he spent two more years.
Buffalo had only won one game a year before Sanders arrived. In his second season, they scored the most since 2016, earning nine.
With the draft in place, the scouts and coaches raised questions about Sanders on and off the field.
One quarterback coach reportedly called him “brash” and “rog arrog.” Another assistant coach told the NFL Network that he was “entitled” after describing it as the “worst formal interview” he had ever attended.
“He’s very qualified,” the anonymous assistant told NFL network’s Tom Pelissero. “He takes unnecessary bags. He doesn’t play on time. He has a scary body language. He blames his teammates. But the biggest thing is, he’s not that good.”
On the field, Sanders has been criticized for both his lack of strength in his arm and for his decision-making. In two seasons with Buffalo, he took a whopping 94 bags.
However, he has also been praised for his accuracy, completing over 70% of his throws in the past two years.
“I really don’t have the space for negativity, so it’s not fulfilling any factors in my life,” Sanders told NBC News this month about the criticism he received. “The easiest thing in the world is to be negative, not positive. I really don’t care what people have to say.”
He added: “It’s so happy that everything’s going on like this. I like a lot of confusion because it shows you who’s really there, because this adds to the story.”
