We are on the eve of the NFL Scouting Combine, and that means it is peak season for NFL mock drafts. And no one has made the mock draft such a fixture in American sports quite like ESPN guru Mel Kiper Jr.
Kiper, like many who have been putting together mock drafts in recent weeks, has seen a shift in how teams are viewing the quarterback spot among the incoming class of 2025. While at one point Colorado star Shedeur Sanders was very much in the mix to be the No. 1 pick, he now appears to be QB2 in this draft, behind Cam Ward.
And it's looking less and less likely that teams in the top five will use their picks on QBs. That's opened the way for the Raiders, to whom Sanders has long been linked, to select him at No. 6.
Unless, that is, one team makes a bold move to swipe Sanders from the Raiders' clutches: the Jets. Speaking with Field Yates on the "First Draft" podcast this week, Kiper held out that possibility, pointing out that with Aaron Rodgers leaving, the Jets are in dire quarterback straits.
"You are in a division with Josh [Allen], Drake Maye and Tua [Tagovailoa] in an AFC loaded with great quarterbacks," Kiper said. "You are fourth [in the AFC East], again that’s the problem, you are fourth by miles. You don’t have a quarterback! Miles, miles and miles. You’re across the other side of the country. You are so far away from what the reality is at quarterback, where you need to be. So you gotta get a quarterback."
"Shedeur Sanders, he's dropping to the Raiders. What would preclude the Jets from going up ahead of the Raiders and getting Shedeur Sanders? That's gonna be interesting. Are the Raiders gonna lose out on Shedeur?"
That may depend, in part, on what the Raiders do in free agency, whether they get a stopgap QB like Rodgers or a long-term free agent like Sam Darnold. If not, Sanders is their guy — unless the Jets trade up, presumably from No. 7 to the Jaguars' pick at No. 5.
