We finally have an answer to the question, “What would happen if the Aaron Rodgers green room story lasted for three whole days?”

Luckily for us all, Shedeur Sanders did not attend the NFL Draft. Unfortunately for him — and all of us, in a way because of the attention this story is getting — he is still waiting for a team to take him after three rounds and 102 picks.

When will Shedeur Sanders be drafted? Will the Los Angeles Rams take him? And what can Rams fans learn from this saga if the team when — not IF — they are speculated to draft a quarterback in the first round of the 2026 draft?

“The Rams will draft a QB” is coming in 2026

There is no question that unless they trade for a franchise quarterback before the next combine, with two first round picks in their pocket, the Los Angeles Rams will probably be THE MOST TALKED ABOUT TEAM when it comes to the QB prospect in next year’s draft. Because they’re the Rams, because Matthew Stafford is 37, and because Les Snead is as aggressive as any general manager in football when it comes to quarterbacks.

However, just because you’ve heard of a quarterback who is supposedly going to be taken high in next year’s draft — Arch Manning, Drew Allar, Garrett Nussmeier, Carson Beck, Nico Iamaleava, and so on — it doesn’t mean that he will definitely be a first round pick.

We’ve heard this story countless times before — Beck was often the number one pick in “way too early mock drafts” last April but he transferred from Georgia after a disappointing season — and we are going to keep hearing it every year.

Arch Manning is earmarked to be the number one pick in 2026 or 2027 (it’s logical to believe he won’t even declare next year) and he has thrown a total of 95 passes in two years.

Predicting the draft is not science, it’s fan fiction

Of course, nobody’s NFL fan fiction has been more exciting on paper and less fulfilling in real life than the dichotomy that is the quarterback son of a Hall of Famer who calls himself “Primetime”.

But before we get to how fans can avoid overhyping themselves for a quarterback who might never get here, we have to go back and look and where the Shedeur Sanders story came from. Well, we enabled it. We gave it life. We watched COLORADO football games for some reason. We ate it up and asked for seconds.

So while the media can’t be blamed for serving us Shedeur for breakfast and lunch, it’s also their fault that they didn’t serve us a scoop of reality for dessert.

You should have known Shedeur wasn’t a first round pick. Some of them did. Next time, we need to listen!

March, 2024: “IT’S GOING TO BE AN ELI”

I’m not even going to say anything. You take it from here, Deion Sanders:

“I know where I want them to go,” Deion Sanders said on the “Million Dollaz Worth of Game” podcast. “So, it’s certain cities that ain’t going to happen. It’s going to be an Eli.”

I see no lies.

Sorry, that’s a typo.

I see no Eli’s.

April 2024: “Way too early” Mock Drafts

At the end of last year’s drafts, when bets started rolling in for who would be the next number one pick to follow Caleb Williams in 2024, Sanders led the way at +300. He was the favorite to be the next number one pick.

Cam Ward, the actual 2025 number one pick, was fifth.

• Shedeur Sanders, +300
• Carson Beck, +500
• Quinn Ewers, +500
• James Pearce, +1000
• Cam Ward, +1700
• Jalen Milroe, +2000
• Drew Allar, +2500
• Patrick Payton, +2500
• Jaxson Dart, +2500
• Mykel Williams, +2500

As you can see, Sanders had much better odds than Jaxson Dart, the only other first round quarterback this week, after the Giants traded up to 25 to get him. Jalen Milroe was the 92nd overall pick and is headed to Seattle.

Quinn Ewers is also waiting to be drafted, but with no fanfare or attention on his “disrespectful” slide.

The other quarterbacks drafted are Tyler Shough, who went 40th to the Saints, and Dillon Gabriel, a third round pick to the Browns. Maybe Cleveland is still holding a grudge from Deion Sanders tweeting seven years ago that he would rather “pull a ELI MANNING” than go to the Browns.

Did Sanders restrict Shedeur and Travis Hunter from certain teams?

Last April, Sanders addressed a rumor that there were only six teams that he would allow his son or his best player to be drafted by and those teams were: 49ers, Cowboys, Commanders, Ravens, Falcons, and Eagles.

Travis Hunter plays for the Jaguars now.

Sanders said it was a “lie” that he would have a list of only six teams:

“One thing about a lie? A lie is so fast it can outrun the truth any day,” Sanders said. “That’s a bald-faced lie. That’s a stupid lie. I have more than six owners that are friends. I have more than six GMs that are friends. You’ve got to understand, I played 14 (pro seasons). And I worked another 17, I believe, in the NFL, NFL Network and CBS. I know a lot of people, c’mon.”

Sanders went onto say that the Eagles would be a good fit for Shedeur, but also that his son would be drafted in the top-4 in 2025, while noting that he would only ever have a list of teams to NOT GO TO, not teams to go to:

Sanders also said both his son and Hunter would be selected “anywhere from one through four” in the 2025 draft, meaning No. 1 overall to No. 4 overall.

“So I would never do that,” Sanders said. “If I was that stupid, I wouldn’t disclose the teams that I want them to play for, I would disclose the several that I wouldn’t.”

Obviously by now, Sanders would no longer blackball certain teams from drafting Shedeur, although it wouldn’t be surprising if at a certain point he wants his son to go undrafted so they can pick a team together.

A year ago though, Sanders was a consensus first round pick, usually top-10:

Remarkably, two different sites suggested that the Panthers would be the worst team and draft Sanders to replace Bryce Young. Even if they were just going off of 2023 win-loss records, the thought process was that Sanders would be an upgrade to Young.

Teams like the Steelers, Raiders, and Giants did predictably need quarterbacks in 2025. But all of them have gone in other directions. Except for maybe the Steelers, who have yet to reveal their cards or they’re just patiently waiting for Aaron Rodgers.

The Raiders traded for Geno Smith and the Giants have added three quarterbacks, including Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston, and Dart.

It’s at the point now where Shedeur isn’t going to go to a team that needs a quarterback. He’s going to go to a team that might be able to squeeze one more quarterback on the roster, maybe.

May, 2024: We always knew that Sanders was a flawed QB

Nate Tice of Yahoo Sports, one of the most respected Internet scouts in football, highlighted that Sanders had flaws in his game that would need to be corrected before he could be considered a top prospect in 2025. This is how the NFL Draft hype train ends up making so many wrong picks to create the perception of a player “falling” in the draft when in many cases the reality is that player was never a highly-ranked prospect to begin with.

The frustrating part when studying Sanders is you seldom see him work throws in the intermediate parts or past the sticks when in rhythm. Colorado’s offense, especially as the 2023 season went along, often felt off-kilter, an explosive play sandwiched between a quarterback under duress and pre-snap penalties. Sanders was sacked on 10.2% of his dropbacks in 2023, a high number compared to the FBS quarterback average of 6.1%. It’s a mark that only three quarterbacks drafted in the first three rounds have topped in a single season — Jayden Daniels, Will Levis and Malik Willis.

Sanders ended up taking sacks at an unsustainable rate for consistent success in 2023, which was often attributed to Colorado’s poor offensive line that was patchworked together with players from the transfer portal. And while the Buffaloes’ line was nowhere close to an elite unit, it was not the horror show it was often depicted as.

Jayden Daniels did end up having one of the best rookie seasons in the history of the NFL, but Daniels had many — MANY — other attributes that made him the number two pick in the draft…and number one most years when Caleb Williams isn’t there.

Daniels’ supporting cast and coaching at LSU are so much better than Colorado’s offense that it is pointless to compare the numbers, but there wasn’t a scout or analyst alive who didn’t see that his athleticism, arm talent, and football IQ would vault him to the top of the draft.

Sanders improved his sack rate (10.2% to 7.7%) and pressure-to-sack rate (25.1% to 19.7%) in 2024, but the numbers were still far too high for comfort. Combined with his average athleticism and poor deep ball accuracy, on top of other concerns, Sanders was never able to vault himself from a day three prospect a year ago to a day two — let alone day one — prospect in 2025.

And that’s the part that so many people missed or refuse to accept:

Shedeur Sanders never “FELL”. Shedeur Sanders only failed to RISE!

On the flipside, rational and logical film analysis of certain prospects is sometimes at odds with clickbait journalism that only intends to draw you in with positivity and selling you a bag of dreams.

At the same time of Tice’s article, Bucky Brooks was just one of hundreds to argue that Sanders was already a number one-worthy QB prospect:

“Shedeur Sanders has the hype — and skill — to be QB1 in 2025 draft class”

As a classic drop-back passer with an impressive set of tools as a pocket passer, Sanders is built for a pro-style offense that features traditional pass concepts designed to target every area of the field. From various in-breaking routes at the short- and intermediate-range (slants, digs, seams, and deep overs) to vertical throws delivered outside of the numbers, the cocky gunslinger flashes blue-chip traits as a distributor from the pocket. Moreover, Sanders displays the poise, confidence, and swagger to make the big-time throws that elite quarterbacks are expected to make in the clutch.

But Brooks does end up pointing out Sanders’ fatal flaw, he just wasn’t willing to admit that these weaknesses would be the nail in the coffin unless the quarterback was able to improve:

From a critical standpoint, Sanders’ nonchalance with his footwork and fundamentals rarely got him into trouble against inferior competition, but his propensity to drift within the pocket remains an issue at Colorado. At Jackson State, he could get away with shoddy technique due to his superior talent, but the better competition in the Pac-12 (and Big 12) conference will expose his inconsistent fundamentals if he fails to tighten up his mechanics before the 2024 season.

Sanders’ “nonchalance” and poor pocket management has put him into day three of the draft. Just as they would have if he was in the 2024 draft class.

For some reason though, these flaws were treated as if they would fix themselves and all Sanders had to do was sit back, collect the checks, and have his number retired and the rest would work itself out.

I have absolutely no doubt that Shedeur Sanders works very hard, maybe harder than anyone else on his team other than Travis Hunter. Truly. He didn’t get this far and he wouldn’t be Deion’s son without effort.

But what I’m talking about is the MEDIA’s side of all of this and how they lied to you and led you astray — or they truly just didn’t know or get it when they watched film, which is also scary — and thinking that Shedeur must be streamlined for the top-5 of the NFL Draft because Deion Sanders told them so and/or because writing about Shedeur gets them more clicks than writing about Dillon Gabriel.

Well, the NFL Draft is spoken and teams do not pass on quarterbacks who they think can be franchise starters, so obviously there wasn’t an NFL starter on the film. Therefore these articles acting as though he had as many gifts and talents as someone like Caleb Williams, who also takes too many sacks and also probably got over-hyped in his college career but still went number one, have a lot of explaining to do.

The NFL isn’t letting Sanders fall. The NFL Draft media just needs to own up to its mistakes.

Otherwise, why are you worse scouts than Reddit users:

Plenty of people knew about Shedeur, but those voices get drowned out by the louder ones who tell us what we want to hear, which is that there’s another prodigal son on the horizon. Because we love great athletes and we want more of them.

Unfortunately, Shedeur — as a prospect — was not one of them. Maybe in 20 years he’ll be in the Hall of Fame and we’ll be laughing about this ridiculous weekend that has transpired.

2025 draft season: It continued…Until just before the draft

If the draft hype train should have been stopped, then it came way too late. How did the biggest names in NFL draft media get through the college season, the showcase bowls, the combine, and the pro days, and not end up saying, “You know what, I think I was wrong!”?

Because that’s not as fun.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. What’s meant to happen is going to happen. I don’t feel like God would put me in a place I’m not supposed to go. We’ve made it everywhere we’ve gone and been successful. … I’m happy with the order. Whatever happens happens.”

And unfortunately, telling Shedeur that he would be a high draft pick and then enabling the lies to dictate how he conducted himself in the pre-draft process only did more to set him back. As we’ve seen in recent years, “top picks” try to go higher in the draft by following the code that “less is more”, such as Jalen Carter telling teams outside of the top-10 that he wouldn’t meet with them, or Marvin Harrison Jr. avoiding any physical tests and letting the tape speak for itself, as many have.

Which is a totally good strategy…if you’re guaranteed to go in the top-10 like Carter and Harrison.

Unfortunately for the Sanders family, Shedeur was never a first round pick in the eyes of the NFL. Doing less only did more damage.

Instead of trying to build a resume by playing in a showcase bowl like the East-West Shrine Bowl, instead of throwing at the combine, instead of meeting with more teams and proving that he wasn’t afraid of how he would test by going through drills, Shedeur Sanders talked as if he was already a top-10 pick.

And that apparently also really annoyed teams, which is not good if you’re not one of these guaranteed top picks like Travis Hunter, Carter, or Harrison.

In fact, Sanders was cited as one of the worst interview subjects in the history of the process.

This actually probably wouldn’t have hurt him so much if Shedeur Sanders wasn’t so hyped — maybe if we always knew he was a day three pick, this attitude would have been called “confidence” and “swagger” instead of “cocky” and “entitled” — but that is the case and they didn’t know it.

Sanders and Deion Sanders lacked self-awareness throughout this entire process. Self-awareness would have meant that Shedeur was falling over himself trying to go out of his way to prove that he was really good, instead of assuming that he was an early first round draft pick who should be allowed to dictate his next destination.

You can’t “pull an Eli” unless you actually are an Eli.

John Elway was John Elway and even when Elway did it, it almost hurt his entire career.

But despite there being COUNTLESS stories and scouting reports that made it undeniably clear that Sanders had to still prove that he was worthy of a first round pick, or a day two pick, the Sanders and many in the media kept acting as though those were “just the haters” (and some of them continue this through not being drafted in the first three rounds at all by blaming anyone but Shedeur and Deion) and so Sanders didn’t do anything to try and prove himself.

Ignoring a problem won’t just make it go away.

Will Rams draft Shedeur Sanders?

Probably not.

And the reason I say that is simply that there are 32 teams and it’s clear that Sanders is simply going to any team, not just teams that need a quarterback. He’s going to go somewhere to compete to make a roster, not to compete to start, so really most of the league is in play for him.

The Rams maybe less so because they only have one pick in the next two rounds, so Sanders would probably need to go in the sixth round for L.A. to even consider it. It seems highly unlikely that Snead would use his only pick in the fourth or fifth round on any quarterback, whether it’s Sanders or someone else.

Is Sanders any better for the team than Stetson Bennett at this point?

Plus, the Rams will want to look into the quarterback draft market in 2026, so it needlessly complicates the room to throw a player like Shedeur in now, who will only need more attention as L.A. gets from here to next year.

With Stafford and Jimmy Garoppolo, the Rams will probably only keep those two quarterbacks on the active 53-man roster next season anyway.

What should Rams learn from this?

I don’t know if the Rams need to learn anything from Shedeur Sanders, but we the fans can take this away from it:

Be careful when you read reports of what’s “going to happen” in the 2026 draft. Nobody knows what’s going to happen, but also there are plenty of bad actors out there who will sell you a bag of lies if it means getting more attention on their website, or their podcast, or their social media account, what have you.

I can tell you right now that I am by no means a scout. I don’t know how to watch college players and project them to the NFL, so that means I really need to trust people who do have those jobs. And unfortunately, many of them are either bad at their jobs or have an agenda that goes outside of simply analyzing prospects for the draft.

Shedeur Sanders was never a first round pick, so he never fell out of the first round.

However, maybe at one point he was a second or third round pick, in which case he is falling, but not because of what he did on the field. It’s because of what has happened on the Internet and in the media, and even if it’s not happening on grass, it was still something that Sanders could have controlled.

If only he had listened to the haters.