It was an eventful NFL Draft for all players involved this year, but maybe none more so than Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. After being projected to be off the board early in the first round, Sanders experienced a historic fall to the fifth round, where he went to the Cleveland Browns.
During the ESPN broadcast, draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. seemed to go out of his way for much of the broadcast to talk up Sanders and express his disbelief in his draft slide.
That seemed to cause a beef with Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal, whose quarterback, Cam Ward, went first overall.
"Mario Cristobal claims he spoke to a million people about Cam Ward, yet the one he didn’t speak to, being me, had Ward ranked higher (6th on my Big Board) than any of the other draft experts," Kiper Jr. said. "Interesting, isn’t it. And oh, by the way, I didn’t speak to Deion about Shedeur either. I need another Orange Crush after this nonsense."
This caused a response from Sanders' famous father and coach, Deion Sanders, who appreciated the reply from Kiper.
"But I Love u my man! You stood on the desk with great balance, 10 toes down, and said what u doggone said & didn’t flinch. You knew what time it was my man & we’re blessed to be right where God wanted us to be. 'With OPPORTUNITY,' they forgot I was in the tv/entertainment business for 20 years before coaching," Sanders wrote on X.
Coach Prime seems to appreciate the love and respect that Kiper Jr. gave Shedeur during the draft process, even if the two never spoke beforehand.