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Cleveland Browns QB Shedeur Sanders.
As soon as Shedeur Sanders started to slip in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Las Vegas Raiders seemed like the obvious team that could take him on Day 2. While the team did trade for Geno Smith, there were plenty of rumors that they wanted to add a young quarterback to develop behind him.
What made the rumors even stronger was the fact that Tom Brady is a minority owner of the Raiders. He had a strong relationship with Sanders and even had the quarterback sign an NIL deal with his TB12 brand when Sanders was still at Colorado.
The Raiders front office hasn’t been shy about the fact that they’ve leaned on Brady when it came to quarterback evaluations. However, he’s now saying that wasn’t the case in the draft.
“It’s a good question,” Brady said when asked why Sanders fell in the draft on the “Impaulsive” podcast. “I wasn’t part of any evaluation process or to see that.”
There have been some suggestions in the media that Brady was why the Raiders didn’t select Sanders, mainly from Skip Bayless. Brady took issue with that idea.
“I know, well, everyone’s got every, you know…” Brady said. “That’s the problem with media is everyone can just say whatever the (expletive) they want and get away with it. And it’s kind of unfortunate because there actually used to be a lot of integrity in media and there’s way less now because everyone needs crazy voices to get heard.
“It actually probably hurts a lot of relationships, which is not the goal of broadcasting. It should be to develop and cultivate and solve problems, and rather than the critiques, I want people to offer solutions.”
Was Brady Truly Not Involved in QB Evaluations?
This is a lose-lose situation for Brady. If he says that he steered the Raiders away from drafting Sanders, he looks like he turned on a player he’s helped mentor. If he says that he didn’t help evaluate people, many will call him a liar.
However, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. What’s most likely is that head coach Pete Carroll, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and general manager John Spytek gave Brady some names in the draft to look into, and Sanders wasn’t on the list.
While Brady is expected to play a large role in the Raiders’ roster decisions, he’s also not likely to insert himself too much in his first year as an owner.
Should Raiders Have Drafted Sanders?
It’s easy to understand why the Raiders didn’t draft Sanders in the first two days of the draft. They had many other needs that needed to be filled.
However, once Sanders fell to the fourth round, the Raiders had two chances to draft him. They chose against it. Using a fourth-round pick on a quarterback with Sanders’ track record wouldn’t have been much of a risk.
Plus, Sanders’ relationship with Geno Smith and Brady would’ve made it easier to keep any potential off-the-field issues in check. If Sanders ends up being a good starter in the NFL, the Raiders will likely be kicking themselves for a long time.
