Rewind to the 2025 NFL Draft. The biggest story of this year's draft was most definitely the massive slide that Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders endured, going from what seemed like a surefire first-round pick to plummeting all the way to the fifth round where the Cleveland Browns eventually stopped the slide by selecting him to their already crowded quarterback room.
Well, Adam Schefter let us all in on a juicy little secret on Sunday morning, reporting that the "Ravens planned to take Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round, but before Baltimore could turn in the card, the former Colorado star let it be known that he didn't want to be on a roster with Lamar Jackson, where he would be a backup."
This is quite the bombshell. Sanders slipped to the fifth round because teams didn't like his attitude and arrogance but the Ravens were still interested in bringing him to Baltimore and letting him learn behind Lamar Jackson. That apparently wasn't cool with Sanders. Learning from a guy who's won two MVP awards and is one of the best quarterbacks in the league wasn't something Sanders was interested in.
Ravens nearly drafted Shedeur Sanders, according to Adam Schefter
This just further cements why Sanders fell as far as he did. After he didn't go in the first round, the guy really didn't have much of a leg to stand on when it came to which team drafted him but even still, he didn't want to go to Baltimore where he'd have been on one of the best teams in the NFL and learning from one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
Instead, Sanders wound up in Cleveland where he's the third-string quarterback behind Joe Flacco and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel. How is that situation better for him than sitting behind Jackson and learning from a great talent? Is it that Sanders actually has a chance to start for the Browns, an opportunity that he probably doesn't get in Baltimore?
This really shows why the Ravens were wise to not end up bringing the guy in. Between him being a distraction and clearly not wanting to put the work in to be the best he can possibly be, this was a good call by Baltimore not to end up drafting him. Have fun with all of that, Cleveland.