From the onset of the long and diligent process of preparing for the 2025 NFL Draft, the general consensus surrounding the quarterback position has been that it has been a two-player arms race between Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders.
Last year, the league’s 32 teams, or at least the ones that needed a new signal caller, were spoiled by having a ransom of six first-round worthy prospects to choose from to fill the most significant void in their offensive huddle.
All six of those players went in the event’s first 12 picks and five in the top 10, signaling a great value in poaching an arm early without it being a reach.
Nearly 12 months later, the 2025 quarterback class hasn’t been receiving as much love as its preceding one. The word around league circles has had the two aforementioned quarterbacks as the only ones in the group deemed early first-round selections. However, even that belief has started to shift negatively for the latter guy in Sanders.
In recent weeks, the son of NFL legend and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders has seen his draft stock start to take a skid while other second-tier prospects, like Ole Miss’s Jaxson Dart, are slowly creeping up the board towards a sneaky late first-round grab.
Much of the trend has seemingly been placed on the fact that Sanders hasn’t shown himself and his skillset at recent evaluation markers, including the NFL Combine last month.
However, to legendary college and former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer, who recently appeared on FS1’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, those things are more likely smoke and mirrors than what is actually affecting Sanders’ status on the quarterback totem pole with just over a month left until the draft.
Meyer made his feelings known that the unspoken reason why teams are fading Sanders has come down to whether he can truly make it far given the demands of the everyday NFL backfield.
“I called a GM friend of mine, and [Shedeur Sanders] had slipped a little bit here,” Meyer said.
“The reason he’s slipping is they’re looking at the competition that he played. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that. But I understand, throughout the NFL, there’s a concern about if he can make the throw in the tight windows because, in the Big 12 conference, he didn’t have to do that very much.”
Regardless of what scouts have said about the defensive talent Sanders faced in his time at Colorado, it’s hard to debate that he didn’t elevate his game to one of the best at the collegiate level as he helped revitalize a beleaguered program that had won just one conference game the previous two years.
After pulling Jackson State from the mud behind his father’s leadership, Sanders shifted to Colorado and produced one of the best passing resumes in the sport. That included a nation-leading 74.0% completion percentage in his final season that topped all the other top quarterback prospects in his class and created over 4,100 passing yards and 37 touchdowns.
A lot of that playmaking had to come on the move, however, as the Buffaloes didn’t boast the greatest offensive front in the land. They ranked 70th in the FBS in pass blocking during Sanders’ first season at the helm in 2023 and only improved to just inside the top 50 programs by the end of the 2024 season.
That experience helped Sanders develop into one of the best prospects for mobility outside of the pocket, making very accurately thrown passes on the run. Sanders had the eleventh-longest average throwing time (5.47 seconds) in the NCAA when forced to scramble out on his 530 total dropbacks last season.
The 23-year-old also tallied a more significant chunk of his aerial production when given less than 2.5 seconds in the pocket—notching an adjusted completion percentage of 91.7% with 1,860 yards, 20 touchdowns, and only four interceptions.
Most of those numbers would start to drop whenever he was given more time on his dropbacks and resulted in Sanders’ having a lack of a desire to face pressure with the protection collapsing around him and make the big throws that define the greatest passers at the professional level.
Instead, he would often find himself succumbing to the pass rush at a rate as high as 21.9% with 34 sacks and not being forced to test his will against the best defenders caving on him to create game-changing plays that the Giants would need from their quarterback successor.
That element is largely why many draft boards across the NFL have begun to distinguish Cam Ward as the lowly No. 1 overall caliber prospect in the upcoming draft while slipping Sanders into the range where he risks losing his long-held QB2 status.
In Meyer’s mind, it’s something that Sanders will need to improve during his upcoming pro day, where he won’t face the regular dose of a pass rush but can show off his abilities to all 32 team reps. If he can do what he does with extra time in the pocket, he’ll help his chances of battling back into top-10 pick contention in April.
“You look at his big plays; a lot of them were on the run, and you know that’s not necessarily what they’re looking for in the NFL. They want a guy that can drop back and make that tight window throw. There’s some question marks if he can do that,” Meyer added.
Even with all the skepticism regarding Sanders’s draft stock, the Giants may have to turn their direction back towards acquiring him with their No. 3 selection.
They’ve tried to attack the veteran route in free agency first but only been stuck waiting around for Aaron Rodgers to pick his next home, of which they’ve been a candidate.
The longer they wait for the mercurial quarterback, the greater the chance they don’t secure a veteran to command the huddle at the start of the 2025 season. Many of their options have waned away and Russell Wilson, one of their other options, might not be willing to wait out Rodgers.
The case for moving up the board to pursue Ward is still in limbo, as the influx of veteran moves could impact how the top three teams operate when the draft opens. The Titans could offer the No. 1 pick in a trade or stay there to select a quarterback or generational talent, and the Browns could steal Sanders as their intrigue for him has grown.
The Giants need to figure out which quarterback can step in, work with what they want to do offensively and wants to be there and run with them if they want to complete a successful offseason.
Sanders has long been attached to them in draft projections, and perhaps he can still convince them to turn away from the pack and place their faith in his talent if he falls into their laps, which seems to be one of the best possibilities.