Mel Kiper Jr. Believes Teams Will Regret Passing On Shedeur Sanders

The most surprising development of the 2025 NFL Draft was the fall of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who at one point was in the mix to be the first overall pick, but he had to wait until the 144th overall pick in the fifth round to finally hear his name called by the Cleveland Browns.

Sanders was the sixth quarterback off the board and the second drafted by the Browns after they took Dillon Gabriel in the third round, and ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. is one of many who believe that teams will regret passing on Sanders so many times.

In an article recapping his winners and losers of the draft, Kiper reiterated how high he is on Sanders and stood ten toes down on his claim that Sanders was the best quarterback in this draft.

“They got quarterback Shedeur Sanders at No. 144 to finish their seven-pick draft. He was my No. 5 overall prospect in the class and clear QB1. He brings excellent accuracy, completing 74% of his throws last season. He brings toughness in the pocket. I think he will be an outstanding pro QB, and I believe we will look back on this pick in a few years and question what the rest of the NFL was doing,” Kiper wrote.

Kiper and the ESPN panel pounded the table for Sanders so hard that they were showing his highlights throughout the majority of the time the Tennessee Titans were on the clock with the first overall pick, and Kiper’s passion devolved into anger over the course of three days as he began calling out the league itself for failing to properly evaluate quarterbacks.

It got uncomfortable to watch at a certain point, but the Browns got an incredible value with Sanders falling all the way to the fifth round.

Many thought he’d be the Browns’ pick at No. 33 overall to kick off the second round, but Cleveland utilized that selection to take Carson Schwesinger out of UCLA to tighten up the linebacker corps.

There will be no pressure on Sanders to win the starting job right away, nor will there be any pressure on the Browns to need Sanders to become a star now that they also have Gabriel and two first-round picks in 2026 to take another QB if none of these guys work out.

It’s a unique situation, but the Browns played the board brilliantly.