The 2025 NFL Draft has delivered one of the most stunning storylines in recent memory as Shadeur Sanders, once hyped as a potential #1 overall pick, fell dramatically to the Cleveland Browns at pick #112. This represents potentially the largest draft stock plummet in NFL history, surpassing even Aaron Rodgers' famous drop to #24 back in 2005.
What's truly fascinating isn't just the fall itself, but what it reveals about the NFL's consistent pattern regarding certain types of quarterback prospects. Throughout the league's history, quarterbacks who generate outsized media attention without being clear-cut franchise talents face a unique challenge. Tim Tebow, Colin Kaepernick, and Michael Vick all experienced versions of this phenomenon - where their celebrity and the accompanying spotlight ultimately worked against them in a league that prefers its backup quarterbacks to remain quietly in the shadows.
The Sanders situation perfectly illustrates professional football's peculiar value system. The NFL regularly embraces players with serious legal troubles, addiction issues, and questionable character, yet consistently shuns those who bring "too much noise" relative to their on-field value. Sanders now faces the challenging road of proving he belongs as a legitimate NFL quarterback while carrying the weight of his famous father's legacy and the scrutiny that comes with such a dramatic draft story. Will he follow the Jalen Hurts path to redemption or join the list of media-magnet quarterbacks pushed out of the league before they truly got their chance? Only time will tell, but this selection has undoubtedly become the most intriguing storyline to follow from the 2025 draft class.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, guys.
Thank you so much and welcome.
This is Stephan Piscano, withthe Stephan Piscano podcast
coming to you live from the NFLDraft 2025.
And it's official, guys ShadurSanders is the newest member of
the Cleveland Browns.
A lot of us thought this couldhave happened in round one, but
it's coming in about 100 pickslater than we thought.
(00:23):
Literally 100 picks later thanwe thought.
Literally 100 picks later thanwe thought.
This is shocking, guys.
I'm not a huge college footballfan.
I love my Crimson Tide and Ipop in and out I guess Bill
Simmons would call it aparachute fan but this is one I
follow because I loved watchingDion growing up and, just out of
my fascination of him and hiskids and what he was building in
(00:44):
Colorado, I did follow Shadur.
I never thought he was a upperechelon top tier talent at
quarterback.
When people like Skip Baylessand many others proclaimed he
could go number one, I knew thatwas garbage.
I never saw him as a top fivepick, but I saw him as more a
later round first round pick,early second round pick.
(01:07):
But regardless, this is by farand away without any question,
this is the biggest draft stockdrop in the history of the NFL
draft.
It's not even close.
When you think about the mosthistoric drops that we think of.
We think about Aaron Rodgersdropping from a potential number
one, number two pick in abattle with Alex Smith 20 years
(01:30):
ago now, back in 05, dropping tothe 24th pick in that draft.
You think about even BenRoethlisberger dropping to
number 10.
You think about, historically,all of these players that we've
seen rumored as a top five pickthat have quote unquote dropped
based on their stock and theperception of where they might
(01:50):
go.
They're always still typicallyfirst round picks, maybe second
round picks.
We've never seen this where aplayer was projected as high as
the number one.
Certainly many were talkingabout Schroeder-Sanders as a top
three pick in this draft formonths and months leading up to
the draft and then about twoweeks going in, it became clear
he wasn't going to go top three.
(02:11):
But we still thought thegeneral perception was he would
go in the first round, certainlyin the top 25 picks of this
draft.
To see him have a shortfallmore than 100 picks below his
projected original placement.
It shows a few things.
Number one draft analysis sixmonths before draft is garbage
(02:34):
and worthless.
Number two there's one thing inthe NFL.
That's just undefeated guys.
And I'm going to probably, Ithink, be the only person in any
kind of podcast media,sportscast media that you're
going to hear make thiscomparison today.
Tim Tebow, colin Kaepernick,michael Vick and now Shadur
(03:03):
Sanders all have in common andyou can say what you want about
the NFL.
It's consistent.
They'll give $100 millioncontracts to people that have
literally killed someone.
Go back and Google that to thevehicular manslaughter case of a
Browns player years ago.
They'll give people that havebeen accused of rape charges.
(03:25):
There'll be people that arealcoholics, drug addicts.
They'll still get drafted.
They'll still get paid.
The one thing consistently inmy lifetime that the NFL does
not want is they don't wantmedia noise from a backup fringe
player.
(03:45):
So with Tim Tebow you had a guywho his career was doomed pretty
much before it started,literally the first game that he
got to start in his secondseason, when he came in for a
one and four Broncos team andultimately led them to seven
straight wins at a playoff berth.
That team was dead on the vineat one and four in the worst
(04:06):
defense in the NFL that season.
And again as soon as he startedhis first game, there was calls
for him to be benched, whichthat was shocking to me.
A year two player that nobody'seven fully got to see yet that
was coming off multiple nationalchampionships and a major
college program Heisman Trophywinner, drafted in the first
(04:26):
round, drafted hired in Shadur.
Ironically enough, andimmediately let's not, let's
develop him, let's wait and seeit was bench him, get him out of
the league, get him off theteam, make him play running back
.
And that was what made thatsuch a media firestorm in 2011
is you had this guy thatimmediately nobody wanted to
play, that just kept winning andwinning, and winning and
winning.
(04:47):
And then against the number onedefense in the NFL, the
Pittsburgh Steelers, that seasonin the first playoff game, tim
Tebow throws for, at that time,a record 316 passing yards for a
quarterback making their firstplayoff start.
That's the most passing yardsever in your first career
playoff start.
Wins that playoff game in themost wild, dramatic, walk-off
(05:09):
fashion I remember watching at ahotel on 11-11 and never really
gets an opportunity to playagain.
Why?
Because there was so much mediafirestorm.
He wasn't an obvious franchisequarterback.
He was somebody that you had tobuild your offense around,
maybe develop a bit, put someresources in or be a backup, and
(05:31):
that media attention was toomuch.
It's the attention that theleague doesn't want, that the
teams don't want, unless you canback it up and have an
opportunity to back it up.
Tim Tebow did back it up.
He never started a game again.
He came in that season, wonseven straight games for a 1-4
team, made the playoffs, won hisfirst playoff game and then
(05:52):
never started an NFL game atquarterback again ever and was
out of the league shortlythereafter.
Michael Vick actually did get aredemption opportunity, but
that's a different story foranother day.
That took two years of himliterally going to prison and
having to sell himself andhaving the attention die off
because he was out of sight, outof mind.
But that wasn't a guaranteeeither and I'm sure and I've
(06:14):
heard him talk about it MichaelVick to this day feels like that
was literally a blessing thatAndy Reid and Donovan McNabb
took a chance on him to bringhim back in, because if they
hadn't made that choice he mighthave never played again.
And then Colin Kaepernickdifferent deal.
You know you're not going tofind, politically, two more
polarizing people that arepolarizing opposites than Colin
(06:36):
Kaepernick and Tim Tebow, butit's exactly the same thing,
colin Kaepernick.
I'm in the minority to where Irooted against him long before
anything to do with the flag,because he just wasn't very good
.
I live in the San Francisco BayArea.
I was watching 49ers games on aregular basis.
(06:56):
Alex Smith was a better player.
At the time that Alex Smith gotbenched for Colin Kaepernick, he
was leading the league inpasser rating True point and
they were 6-2, I believe I'mgoing off of memory here, but
they had a 6-2 record.
He gets injured with aconcussion protocol.
One game they put Kaepernick in, never looked back and, yes, he
took him to a Super Bowl with astacked team, an incredible
(07:19):
coach with Harbaugh.
Alex Smith did the same thingthe season before, except he
took them to the NFCChampionship game and the season
before, except he took them tothe NFC Championship game and
their punt return team fumbledtwo punts in one game.
I've never seen that before orsince Two fumbled punt returns
in that game.
If not, then then Alex Smiththe season before would have
(07:41):
also taken that same team to theSuper Bowl.
So he was always highlyoverrated as a player.
When he got all of thefirestorm of media attention
from kneeling for the flag, thenhe did get blackballed, just
like Tim Tebow.
Tim Tebow got blackballed notbecause of the play, not
warranting him being a backupquarterback, because both Tim
(08:02):
Tebow and Colin Kaepernick Ithink their skill sets are
actually shockingly similar andI think I'd put them in that
same tier to where they have alittle winning intangible.
They're great runners, they canbe clutch throwers more so
Tebow than Kaepernick andKaepernick's probably a little
better runner than Tebow butthey're both in that same mold
to where they could be greatgadget guys.
(08:23):
They could be a spot starterand maybe, with a stack team,
could lead your team to theplayoffs as the starter.
But neither of them ever got anopportunity again because of
the media attention.
That's the same thing that'shappened here, in my opinion,
with Shadur is is he a firstround grade?
You know, debatable, probablynot.
(08:44):
It's border.
Is he a top 100 pick?
Of course he is.
Of course he is.
You know, there's no debateabout that.
But you're getting a guy who youdon't know exactly what he is.
He's fringe, just like Tebow,just like Kaepernick, to where
you don't know if he's going tobe your third stringer, your
backup.
Is he going to be a spotstarter or is he going to be
(09:06):
your franchise guy and you know,if you pick him, the media
attention is going to be nonstop.
For you to pick what he is,tell us what he is and stick
with it.
And if the media doesn't backit up because so many people,
including me, love Deion Sanderswe're rooting for him.
So you're going to have peoplelike Skip Bayless, before they
(09:26):
even open training camp, sayinghe needs to be the starter.
You're still going to have thatyou.
You can have him be the 112thpick in the draft, the 121st
pick in the draft.
He could have been mrirrelevant, it doesn't matter.
You're going to have somepeople.
I guarantee you skip bayless isgoing to say at some point,
regardless of where he had beenpicked, that that he needs to be
(09:46):
your starter on day one or heneeds to be your starter during
this coming season, in hisrookie season.
And that's a distraction.
That's the consistency that theNFL has never wanted, that in
their locker room and on theirteam.
So that's what's happened here.
I've never cared for it.
I would have loved to see and Ithink it robs fans of
opportunities to see players wewant to see.
(10:07):
I would have loved to see Tebowhow he would have followed up
that incredible year.
I would have you know.
I think Kaepernick deserved anopportunity to try and I
actually would have loved it toofor him to get in there and
play.
I don't think he wanted it atthe end, but again, as somebody
that rooted against him longbefore the flag stuff, just
(10:29):
because of the caliber of hisplay.
Now he's in this weirdsituation where, because he
didn't get to play um andactually, by the way, he had
been benched prior to anythingto do with the flag he had been
benched for blaine gabbertgoogle it if you don't remember
um just for performance, not forinjury, purely for performance.
Bench for Blaine Gabbert.
(10:49):
So that says something.
But he's been propped up thathe was a better player than he
actually was.
I would have loved to actuallysee him on the field and remind
people of the caliber of playerhe was.
Thankfully, we did at least getmy guy, michael Vick, back in
there and had some great momentsto wrap up his career, which I
think he earned, and hopefullywe get to see it with Shadur as
well.
But time will tell, guys.
(11:10):
I mean, this is one of thosethings that wouldn't surprise
you if a year from now he is inthat Jalen Hurts mold to where
Jalen dropped a little bitfurther than I thought he should
have, and then he, immediately,when he got an opportunity,
turned the Eagles into a winnerand ultimately a Super Bowl
champion.
Will it be that?
Or he could be out of theleague in two or three years?
(11:31):
Neither would surprise me.
But thank you so much, guys.
I'd really appreciate it ifyou'd subscribe to the YouTube
channel and or the podcast onApple or Spotify.
We don't do a lot of sports,but we'd like to, so the only
way that I can know that you'dlike to hear more from us is if
you please just hit that 100%free subscribe button.
It takes two seconds to do andit means a lot to us.
Thank you much and have ablessed weekend.
All right, guys.
Thank you so much and welcome.
This is Stephan Piscano, withthe Stephan Piscano podcast
coming to you live from the NFLDraft 2025.
And it's official, guys ShadurSanders is the newest member of
the Cleveland Browns.
A lot of us thought this couldhave happened in round one, but
it's coming in about 100 pickslater than we thought.
(00:23):
Literally 100 picks later thanwe thought.
Literally 100 picks later thanwe thought.
This is shocking, guys.
I'm not a huge college footballfan.
I love my Crimson Tide and Ipop in and out I guess Bill
Simmons would call it aparachute fan but this is one I
follow because I loved watchingDion growing up and, just out of
my fascination of him and hiskids and what he was building in
(00:44):
Colorado, I did follow Shadur.
I never thought he was a upperechelon top tier talent at
quarterback.
When people like Skip Baylessand many others proclaimed he
could go number one, I knew thatwas garbage.
I never saw him as a top fivepick, but I saw him as more a
later round first round pick,early second round pick.
(01:07):
But regardless, this is by farand away without any question,
this is the biggest draft stockdrop in the history of the NFL
draft.
It's not even close.
When you think about the mosthistoric drops that we think of.
We think about Aaron Rodgersdropping from a potential number
one, number two pick in abattle with Alex Smith 20 years
(01:30):
ago now, back in 05, dropping tothe 24th pick in that draft.
You think about even BenRoethlisberger dropping to
number 10.
You think about, historically,all of these players that we've
seen rumored as a top five pickthat have quote unquote dropped
based on their stock and theperception of where they might
(01:50):
go.
They're always still typicallyfirst round picks, maybe second
round picks.
We've never seen this where aplayer was projected as high as
the number one.
Certainly many were talkingabout Schroeder-Sanders as a top
three pick in this draft formonths and months leading up to
the draft and then about twoweeks going in, it became clear
he wasn't going to go top three.
(02:11):
But we still thought thegeneral perception was he would
go in the first round, certainlyin the top 25 picks of this
draft.
To see him have a shortfallmore than 100 picks below his
projected original placement.
It shows a few things.
Number one draft analysis sixmonths before draft is garbage
(02:34):
and worthless.
Number two there's one thing inthe NFL.
That's just undefeated guys.
And I'm going to probably, Ithink, be the only person in any
kind of podcast media,sportscast media that you're
going to hear make thiscomparison today.
Tim Tebow, colin Kaepernick,michael Vick and now Shadur
(03:03):
Sanders all have in common andyou can say what you want about
the NFL.
It's consistent.
They'll give $100 millioncontracts to people that have
literally killed someone.
Go back and Google that to thevehicular manslaughter case of a
Browns player years ago.
They'll give people that havebeen accused of rape charges.
(03:25):
There'll be people that arealcoholics, drug addicts.
They'll still get drafted.
They'll still get paid.
The one thing consistently inmy lifetime that the NFL does
not want is they don't wantmedia noise from a backup fringe
player.
(03:45):
So with Tim Tebow you had a guywho his career was doomed pretty
much before it started,literally the first game that he
got to start in his secondseason, when he came in for a
one and four Broncos team andultimately led them to seven
straight wins at a playoff berth.
That team was dead on the vineat one and four in the worst
(04:06):
defense in the NFL that season.
And again as soon as he startedhis first game, there was calls
for him to be benched, whichthat was shocking to me.
A year two player that nobody'seven fully got to see yet that
was coming off multiple nationalchampionships and a major
college program Heisman Trophywinner, drafted in the first
(04:26):
round, drafted hired in Shadur.
Ironically enough, andimmediately let's not, let's
develop him, let's wait and seeit was bench him, get him out of
the league, get him off theteam, make him play running back
.
And that was what made thatsuch a media firestorm in 2011
is you had this guy thatimmediately nobody wanted to
play, that just kept winning andwinning, and winning and
winning.
(04:47):
And then against the number onedefense in the NFL, the
Pittsburgh Steelers, that seasonin the first playoff game, tim
Tebow throws for, at that time,a record 316 passing yards for a
quarterback making their firstplayoff start.
That's the most passing yardsever in your first career
playoff start.
Wins that playoff game in themost wild, dramatic, walk-off
(05:09):
fashion I remember watching at ahotel on 11-11 and never really
gets an opportunity to playagain.
Why?
Because there was so much mediafirestorm.
He wasn't an obvious franchisequarterback.
He was somebody that you had tobuild your offense around,
maybe develop a bit, put someresources in or be a backup, and
(05:31):
that media attention was toomuch.
It's the attention that theleague doesn't want, that the
teams don't want, unless you canback it up and have an
opportunity to back it up.
Tim Tebow did back it up.
He never started a game again.
He came in that season, wonseven straight games for a 1-4
team, made the playoffs, won hisfirst playoff game and then
(05:52):
never started an NFL game atquarterback again ever and was
out of the league shortlythereafter.
Michael Vick actually did get aredemption opportunity, but
that's a different story foranother day.
That took two years of himliterally going to prison and
having to sell himself andhaving the attention die off
because he was out of sight, outof mind.
But that wasn't a guaranteeeither and I'm sure and I've
(06:14):
heard him talk about it MichaelVick to this day feels like that
was literally a blessing thatAndy Reid and Donovan McNabb
took a chance on him to bringhim back in, because if they
hadn't made that choice he mighthave never played again.
And then Colin Kaepernickdifferent deal.
You know you're not going tofind, politically, two more
polarizing people that arepolarizing opposites than Colin
(06:36):
Kaepernick and Tim Tebow, butit's exactly the same thing,
colin Kaepernick.
I'm in the minority to where Irooted against him long before
anything to do with the flag,because he just wasn't very good
.
I live in the San Francisco BayArea.
I was watching 49ers games on aregular basis.
(06:56):
Alex Smith was a better player.
At the time that Alex Smith gotbenched for Colin Kaepernick, he
was leading the league inpasser rating True point and
they were 6-2, I believe I'mgoing off of memory here, but
they had a 6-2 record.
He gets injured with aconcussion protocol.
One game they put Kaepernick in, never looked back and, yes, he
took him to a Super Bowl with astacked team, an incredible
(07:19):
coach with Harbaugh.
Alex Smith did the same thingthe season before, except he
took them to the NFCChampionship game and the season
before, except he took them tothe NFC Championship game and
their punt return team fumbledtwo punts in one game.
I've never seen that before orsince Two fumbled punt returns
in that game.
If not, then then Alex Smiththe season before would have
(07:41):
also taken that same team to theSuper Bowl.
So he was always highlyoverrated as a player.
When he got all of thefirestorm of media attention
from kneeling for the flag, thenhe did get blackballed, just
like Tim Tebow.
Tim Tebow got blackballed notbecause of the play, not
warranting him being a backupquarterback, because both Tim
(08:02):
Tebow and Colin Kaepernick Ithink their skill sets are
actually shockingly similar andI think I'd put them in that
same tier to where they have alittle winning intangible.
They're great runners, they canbe clutch throwers more so
Tebow than Kaepernick andKaepernick's probably a little
better runner than Tebow butthey're both in that same mold
to where they could be greatgadget guys.
(08:23):
They could be a spot starterand maybe, with a stack team,
could lead your team to theplayoffs as the starter.
But neither of them ever got anopportunity again because of
the media attention.
That's the same thing that'shappened here, in my opinion,
with Shadur is is he a firstround grade?
You know, debatable, probablynot.
(08:44):
It's border.
Is he a top 100 pick?
Of course he is.
Of course he is.
You know, there's no debateabout that.
But you're getting a guy who youdon't know exactly what he is.
He's fringe, just like Tebow,just like Kaepernick, to where
you don't know if he's going tobe your third stringer, your
backup.
Is he going to be a spotstarter or is he going to be
(09:06):
your franchise guy and you know,if you pick him, the media
attention is going to be nonstop.
For you to pick what he is,tell us what he is and stick
with it.
And if the media doesn't backit up because so many people,
including me, love Deion Sanderswe're rooting for him.
So you're going to have peoplelike Skip Bayless, before they
(09:26):
even open training camp, sayinghe needs to be the starter.
You're still going to have thatyou.
You can have him be the 112thpick in the draft, the 121st
pick in the draft.
He could have been mrirrelevant, it doesn't matter.
You're going to have somepeople.
I guarantee you skip bayless isgoing to say at some point,
regardless of where he had beenpicked, that that he needs to be
(09:46):
your starter on day one or heneeds to be your starter during
this coming season, in hisrookie season.
And that's a distraction.
That's the consistency that theNFL has never wanted, that in
their locker room and on theirteam.
So that's what's happened here.
I've never cared for it.
I would have loved to see and Ithink it robs fans of
opportunities to see players wewant to see.
(10:07):
I would have loved to see Tebowhow he would have followed up
that incredible year.
I would have you know.
I think Kaepernick deserved anopportunity to try and I
actually would have loved it toofor him to get in there and
play.
I don't think he wanted it atthe end, but again, as somebody
that rooted against him longbefore the flag stuff, just
(10:29):
because of the caliber of hisplay.
Now he's in this weirdsituation where, because he
didn't get to play um andactually, by the way, he had
been benched prior to anythingto do with the flag he had been
benched for blaine gabbertgoogle it if you don't remember
um just for performance, not forinjury, purely for performance.
Bench for Blaine Gabbert.
(10:49):
So that says something.
But he's been propped up thathe was a better player than he
actually was.
I would have loved to actuallysee him on the field and remind
people of the caliber of playerhe was.
Thankfully, we did at least getmy guy, michael Vick, back in
there and had some great momentsto wrap up his career, which I
think he earned, and hopefullywe get to see it with Shadur as
well.
But time will tell, guys.
(11:10):
I mean, this is one of thosethings that wouldn't surprise
you if a year from now he is inthat Jalen Hurts mold to where
Jalen dropped a little bitfurther than I thought he should
have, and then he, immediately,when he got an opportunity,
turned the Eagles into a winnerand ultimately a Super Bowl
champion.
Will it be that?
Or he could be out of theleague in two or three years?
(11:31):
Neither would surprise me.
But thank you so much, guys.
I'd really appreciate it ifyou'd subscribe to the YouTube
channel and or the podcast onApple or Spotify.
We don't do a lot of sports,but we'd like to, so the only
way that I can know that you'dlike to hear more from us is if
you please just hit that 100%free subscribe button.
It takes two seconds to do andit means a lot to us.
Thank you much and have ablessed weekend.
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