The Raiders are going to do everything they can to walk from the 2025 draft with a franchise quarterback and if Shedeur Sanders is the guy they want, it’s looking more and more like Tom Brady and company are going to be able to get him.
Just about every mock draft in the last six months has projected Sanders to be taken within the first 10 picks, but momentum around the league’s most polarizing prospect has come to a halt in recent weeks.
Last week, Mel Kiper Jr.’s mock draft had Sanders falling past the Raiders at no. 6, with the Jets taking him at pick 7.
This week, an NFL.com mock has him falling even farther.
On Monday, league draft analyst Lance Zierlein projected Sanders to slide to the end of the first round before being rescued by the Cleveland Browns with the 29th pick. If it plays out that way and Sanders falls that far in the draft, the Raiders will have every opportunity to get him if they want him.
It has been rumored that the Sanders family doesn’t want Shedeur to play for the Browns, so there is a possibility the Browns won’t even be a team the Raiders are competing with if Sanders is on the board at the end of the first round.
It only takes one team to change everything, but it seems like Sanders didn’t do himself any favors in the last month with the way he has approached the draft. His unwillingness to throw at the Senior Bowl and the NFL Combine were not viewed as confident maneuvers, and according to multiple reports, teams are concerned about the distractions around Shedeur as he transitions to the NFL.
By all accounts, University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward has distanced himself from every quarterback in the draft and is a virtual lock to be taken in the first three picks.
Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter said this week that at least 90 percent of the teams he has talked to have Jaxson Dart higher on their draft board than Sanders, and it feels like the stars are lining up for Shedeur to potentially have a significant fall in the draft.
With Chip Kelly now in the mix in Las Vegas, it’s hard to imagine the Raiders are going to overlook his former Ohio State quarterback and if the Raiders don’t have a quarterback going into the second round, keep an eye on Will Howard.
x: @raidersbeat
He didn’t improve this season from last and his father is a control freak.
Hard pass.
Jaxson Dart!
This strikes me as fairly insane. No games have been played since Sanders was the consensus #1 pick. I don’t buy it. And if it is true, it seems like paralysis by analysis…. and teams valuing the wrong things… Unless all the scouts were wrong for ranking him so high in the first place, bet on the talent and work on the less tangible stuff