Tom Brady has gone out of his way to disassociate himself from the Raiders’ decision to pass on Shedeur Sanders multiple times in the draft.
Despite his comments on his involvement (or lack thereof) in the Raiders’ personnel department, there’s little doubt that Brady played a significant role in the team’s direction at quarterback in the draft.
Brady may never share why the Raiders didn’t draft Sanders, but this week on Cris Collinsworth’s PFF Podcast, Brady talked about what he looks for in a quarterback and there were some traits he mentioned that didn’t necessarily line up with what Shedeur showed on the field in college.
“Football is the ultimate team sport and even in this broadcasting role, that’s what I look for all the time,” Brady told Collinsworth.
“When a quarterback throws a touchdown pass, I actually watch to see who he goes and celebrates with. Because what did I do? I went and looked for my offensive linemen every time,” Brady continued. “I went down and celebrated in the endzone with my teammates every time. I wanted everyone to feel like they were part of the success.”
“I think that’s way more intimidating than a quarterback doing his six-shooter guns and pointing up in the crowd and doing all that other bullsh– that’s very self-promotional, but it’s not about winning. I think winning in football is about a team attitude first.”
Brady didn’t mention Sanders, specifically, but it doesn’t take a big imagination to believe Brady viewed some of Sanders’ actions on and off the field as “self-promotional.”
There aren’t many NFL decision makers that have a better relationship with the Sanders family than Brady, so it wasn’t a great endorsement when the Raiders repeatedly chose to pass on Shedeur in the draft.
Sports Illustrated insider Albert Breer talked in June about the concerns the New York Giants had with Sanders, and it’s fair to wonder if the Raiders’ fell into a similar category with the former Colorado star.
“The Giants… they give players an install, and there are mistakes intentionally put in the install. He didn’t catch them and got called on it, and it didn’t go well after that… He was pissed that they did that to him,” Breer said on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Zolak and Bertrand.
“He throws a bad interception. It was a deep throw early in the game,” Breer continued. “They go in the meeting, they show the interception, and they say, ‘What happened here?’ [Sanders responded] ‘Well, I like to get into a rhythm earlier in the game.’”
“They get into it over that, and his conclusion is, ‘Well, maybe I’m not a fit for you…’ The person who told me that story was like, ‘I’ve never heard that before.’ It was in a combine interview when you’re just going from team to team trying to put your best foot forward.”
Unfortunately for Sanders, the situation he landed in with the Cleveland Browns isn’t great and there is reason to believe the organization still isn’t on the same page with how to move forward with him.
As an aside, Raider Nation Radio host ‘JT the Brick’ called out the New York Giants and the Browns prior to the draft, appealing to both teams to draft Shedeur, and the same logic should be reasonably applied to the Raiders if Shedeur’s career takes off at the NFL level.
As it turned out, the Browns made the decision to draft Sanders, but no one was anticipating that he would fall to the fifth round, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the Cleveland coaching staff juggles what has turned into the most complicated quarterback room in the league.
x: @raidersbeat
Well Miller was/is Brady’s selection in the 6th. And now they shelved him to the PS because he wasn’t good enough and then had to trade a 5th in next years draft for K.Pickett due to AOCs injury. So since Tom, Pete & Spytek have come in they’ve given a 3rd for a 2-3 yr rental at best, a 6th for a PS player who probably would’ve been undrafted ( another 6th for another QB turned into WR who was cut and isn’t on the PS) and a 5th next yr for Pickett. Those are all terrible decisions! Overvalued on all. This list didn’t include the overdraft of Jeanty, Bech as well. Throw in not trading J.Meyers and it’s been a terrible off-season. Geno now has to play all 17 and be a top 8 QB, Jeanty now needs to get 1500 rush, 400 rec and 10 + tds. The entire offense needs to score 30+ to keep us in most games. I’m not expecting those kind of stats from this team. Picking top 10 next year
They also picked up the heralded and talented Jeff Driskel who’s been in the league for seven years to the practice squad. How awful must he be. We need to draft a top qb next year so I hope they don’t give anymore draft picks away.
So if there wasn’t a noteworthy QB in the 2025 draft class, should this be the fault of this management? Because it doesn’t seem to me that there was all that much value available, so frankly I wonder what they could have done, other than taking a highly underrated QB in the league, but largely solid, with only a third-round pick. I’d say there are much worse things. As for the rest, you understand, they spent a sixth-round pick on a guy who is now practic team.. a scandal!?
Until Tuck Brady, ur Tom. Sorry. Gets us a 4th trophy, I honestly don’t care about what he says.