It is not frequent that the general election 144 in general is the largest history of the NFL draft.
But Shedeur Sanders was not the 144th regular selection and his situation transcended football. The narrative around Sanders bordered the lines between sports, race and culture.
The former field marshal of the University of Colorado was the center of a three -day show that will live in the soccer tradition for a long time. Sanders fell from a possible general selection among the top five on Thursday to Fifth Round on Saturday On an unbearable slide That made his followers laugh and detractors.
The Cleveland Browns Finally the misery of Sanders ended With the selection No. 144, adding the 23 -year -old to a field marshal room full of people that includes Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, his rookie partner Dillon Gabriel and the injured Deshaun Watson.
Five quartbacks were selected in this year’s draft before Sanders, including Gabriel and the general selection No. 1 Cam Ward, who went to Tennessee’s Titans.
Sanders, the son of the Hall of Fame of Professional Soccer and the coach of Colorado Deion Sanders, has been among the greatest stories of university football in the last four years, first in Jackson State and then with the buffalos. The field marshal game in the field, and occasionally impolly personality inside and outside it, have made it one of the light lightning rods of sport.
Next, Associated Press examines some of the possible reasons for Sanders’s free fall, using the QB’s own words, his father’s comments, expert analysis and their performance in the field.
What the Sanders said: “You must understand, when that last name is on your back, you will be attacked and ridiculed by the detractors,” said Colorado Deion Sanders coach.
From Shedeur Sanders: “I’m going to be myself so you like it or not.”
What others said: the young Sanders takes with a supreme confidence, as did his father when he was a start of two sports in the NFL and the major baseball leagues in the 1990s. But some experts who cover the league (generally using anonymous sources) said that Sanders’ confidence could bother the NFL staff, particularly during the interview process in the process of interview in the warehouse. The old man Sanders was occasionally open on social networks about his son’s talent, facing critics.
“All these things began to go to the teams, and I do not say that this is correct to be added to the teams, but, clearly, the teams are added … this is clearly a way for the NFL and its teams to do it to him and any other person who knows it: you cannot compete in this way in the future,” said Jonathan Jones, an NFL analyst for CBS.
What Sanders did: the younger Sanders could be shameless: he established a personalized room for Draft night, but according to the reports he maintained an average of 3.9 grades in Colorado and was never involved in incidents outside the field that aimed at serious concerns of character.
Reading between the lines: J. Kenyatta Cavil, an interim dean of education and sports studies at the University of Southern Texas, said that rejection when it came to Sanders was not a surprise.
Cavil said Deion and Shedeur Sanders did a remarkable job by controlling the youngest Sanders’ career, moving from a private high school to the state of Jackson in Colorado. That proved to be a problem.
“That is the only thing in this dichotomy, it is that you have a coach and a son, for a period of time, which could control the space,” said Cavil, and then added: “They had this ability to transform spaces that allowed them to be their unique and authentic being, which is not always acceptable in the social structure.”
What his followers said: “This is an extremely precise guy. It is extremely mobile. He has a lot of mental power. He played the game at a high level,” said former NFL player and executive of the office at the front of Louis Riddick, now ESPN analyst.
What others said: the main criticisms against Sanders’ soccer skills are that it takes too many catches, it is not too athletic and does not have a great strength of the arm. He had opportunities during the process prior to the draft to address these concerns, but did not always take advantage of the opportunities to exercise for explorers.
“For a player who had a variety of questions, both on the level of talent, how he would fit into an NFL system, how he would fit his playing style at the university, but also about the possible cultural clash of the first time he plays for someone who is not his father, there were opportunities that Shedeur Sanders could have taken there,” said Nfl Network. “It seemed to feel that it was an elite category in which I could choose the few teams I wanted to go.”
What Sanders did: Sanders had four productive seasons at the university and finished his career with 50 games played in four seasons: two in Jackson State and two in Colorado. He completed more than 70% of his passes for 14,353 yards and 134 touchdowns with 27 interceptions. He ended eighth in the vote of the Heisman trophy last year while his teammate Travis Hunter He won the prize. Hunter was recruited by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the general selection number 2.
Reading between lines: It is not uncommon for a good university quartback, even with excellent statistics, due to concerns that range from size to the speed and strength of the arm. Famous, the seven -time Marshal of the winner of the Super Bowl, Tom Brady, was Michigan’s novelty in 2000 before embarking on one of the most successful races in the history of the NFL. But none of the quarterbacks overlooked had transcended the world of football as Shedeur Sanders had done during his university career.
What Shedeur Sanders said: despite the shameful free fall of the draft, which included A joke call Orchestrated by the son of a coach of the Falcones of Atlanta and President Donald Trump intervened: Sanders will have the opportunity to prove his value in the NFL. His first opportunity is with the Browns, who have added multiple field marshals in the low season in an effort to find a long -term solution.
“I am really grateful to have, it is the opportunity for people to really see the real self and cannot see things that could be true or not,” Sanders said.
What others said: the general manager of the Browns, Andrew Berry, changed in the draft to land Sanders after he fell to the fifth round, feeling that any possible problem was worth the risk.
“We feel that it was a good and solid perspective in the most important position. We feel that it reached a point where it probably had an incorrect price in relation to the draft. Actually, the acquisition cost was quite light, and it is a guy that we believe can exceed its draft slot.
Reading between lines: Cavil, the interim dean of southern Texas, said he hopes that the news cycle will move quickly and that Sanders has a kind of respite until the Browns training field begins in summer. Meanwhile, more will come out of the free fall of the Draft of the Marshal of the Field. What really matters is how it works from this point.
“Within a year, for the rest of his career, whatever the success he has or not, people will return to this point,” said Cavil. “It will be a story of overcoming all these obstacles or someone who could not do it.”
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The AP Pro football writer, Rob Maaddi, contributed to this report.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
