NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt used his time during Monday morning’s edition of Good Morning Football to take the American sports media to task for their “bat-bleepin’ insane” coverage of Sanders’ fall to the fifth round of the draft.
Before the draft, many media pundits projected Sanders as a top-five pick or at least a first-round pick. As the hours wore on Thursday night, it became evident that NFL teams did not agree, as Sanders fell out of the first round, out of the second and third rounds on Friday night, and out of the fourth and into the fifth round on Saturday, where the Browns eventually drafted him.
Pundits across the sports world left their normal weekend duties and took to social media. Most of them accusing or implying that racism had played a factor in Sanders’ fall. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith even accused the NFL of a “Kaepernick-Level” blackballing of Sanders.
Brandt blasted what began as a football story to “a drunken media story.”
“It became one of these seismic media rodeos where you can sit there and watch people that you’ve followed for years say things you know they don’t believe or at best they were saying from some emotional place where they were so unhinged and off the reservation … I mean, I’m hearing things like conspiracy, collusion – what are you talking about?
“Do you not think that if one team thought Shedeur Sanders would help them win one more game than the other guy, that they wouldn’t immediately draft him? They would. I promise you. These coaches, these GMs are obsessed, desperate, nomadic people who just want to win games and not move their families to another city after they’re fired.”
Reaction to the Shedeur reaction.
— Kyle Brandt (@KyleBrandt) April 28, 2025
Ridiculous weekend of media. pic.twitter.com/2DLoXFOkVW
“It’s sad, and it’s stupid,” he continued. “And when something is this far gone, like this story has been on to planet Mars, this far into the ether, this so reckless in the commentary, you gotta search for some simple truths. … No teams loved Shedeur in the draft. Nobody loved him as a player. If anyone loved him, they would have drafted him way earlier. Maybe some liked him, but nobody loved him.”
Brandt surmised that most teams viewed Sanders as a backup and didn’t want to invite a situation where a backup player would receive more media attention than anyone else on their team.
“I don’t know if that’s a bat-bleepin insane enough take to keep up with the all frontrunners talking about Shedeur right now, but that’s my only practical reaction to what happened.”
Sanders will wear a Browns uniform for the first time at Cleveland’s rookie minicamp, which runs from May 9 to 11.
