While Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders has been cemented as one of the top quarterback prospects in the upcoming NFL draft class, several teams are waiting to see something more.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, NFL teams are waiting to see what ‘superpower’ Sanders has that could place him among elite quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson.
“I think the issue with Shedeur, and this is going to be a difficult thing for him to address over the next six or seven weeks is, are you special in any one area? Do you have a superpower trait?” Breer said. “Or, are you an average athlete with an average arm in an NFL context? I think that that’s the way a lot of teams look at him. He’s not a great athlete. He doesn’t have a big arm. So, where is the superpower that’s going to make you want to take him to the Top 5? I think you attach that, then, to what the teams in the AFC are looking up at, and that’s sort of this Mount Olympus of quarterbacks.”
While many experts believe Shedeur Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward are without question the top two quarterbacks in the draft, many experts continue to flip who comes off the board first. In a recent mock draft from ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Ward is the first quarterback off the board at No. 2 (Cleveland Browns) followed by Sanders at No. 7 (New York Jets).
“So if you’re Tennessee picking first or Cleveland picking second, I’ll borrow a term that Daniel Jeremiah used with me a few days ago: It’s almost like you have to chase ceiling. It’s not, ‘Can this guy be a good player?’ It’s, ‘Can this guy be good enough to compete with Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Joe Burrow in the AFC?’ And oh, by the way, when you get by those guys, you’ve still got more guys with a lot of upside in C.J. Stroud, Trevor Lawrence, Bo Nix, and Drake Maye.”
Breer finished his thoughts by saying, “It’s a gauntlet. If you draft Shedeur Sanders in the Top 5 or Top 10 picks, could he get up and running pretty fast? I think he probably could. Five years from now, are you going to be comfortable giving him $55, $60, $65 million a year? I think that’s the question.”
The 2025 NFL Draft kicks off on Thursday, April 24th, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
