Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson claims the NFL conspired to prevent Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders from being drafted early in the 2025 NFL draft, alleging the league made an example of Sanders who fell from potential first-round status to a Day 3 selection.
On Wednesday’s episode of “Roggin and Rodney” on LA Sports AM 570 in Los Angeles, Dickerson said the league focused on ensuring Sanders would not be drafted.
“What I heard from someone that’s in the NFL was that the NFL told other teams, ‘Don’t draft him, we’re going to make an example out of him,’” Dickerson said. “This came from a very good source. He said that, I won’t say who, somebody called the Cleveland Browns and said, ‘Don’t do that’ because they weren’t going to draft him either. They were forced into drafting him because somebody made a call to them.”
Dickerson said he knew something was happening after Sanders was not selected in the first round, falling to the fifth round with the Browns selecting him 144th overall, even after they selected Dillon Gabriel in the third round.
“When I saw he went into the second round, I said out loud that they’re not going to draft him,” Dickerson said. “They were going to make an example out of him. I knew it. So the guy that they drafted, the quarterback they drafted ahead of him, he wasn’t as good as Shedeur. He even said it. How do you draft a guy that’s not better than the guy that you drafted after? That doesn’t even make sense.”
Dickerson earlier questioned why the Los Angeles Rams, the team for which Dickerson played five of his 11 seasons, did not take Sanders with starting quarterback Matthew Stafford dealing with a back injury and Jimmy Garoppolo and Stetson Bennett IV as backups.
“We could have gotten him cheap,” Dickerson said. “We needed a backup quarterback, but I see we’ve got Garoppolo and we’ve got the other kid from Georgia. He seemed like he was doing a pretty good job. Since we talked about Matt Stafford, possibly this would be his last year, if he got hurt, just throw him into the mix. It wouldn’t have hurt anything. It would cost you a fourth-round pick or something like that.”
After the Browns named Joe Flacco as the Week 1 starter against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sanders is fighting for a roster spot with Gabriel and Kenny Pickett. Sanders started the first preseason game for the Browns against the Carolina Panthers, completing 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. He was expected to see considerable playing time last week against the Eagles, but an oblique injury during a joint practice sidelined him for the game. Sanders is expected to play Saturday afternoon against the Rams in the preseason finale.
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Chris Franklin may be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com.
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