Former Jets scout turns spotlight on Shedeur Sanders’ red flags, hours before 2025 NFL Draft

NCAA Football: Colorado NFL Showcase - Source: Imagn — NCAA Football: Colorado NFL Showcase - Image Source: Imagn

Colorado Buffaloes QB Shedeur Sanders has been one of the most-discussed players in the 2025 NFL draft. Since the end of the season, he has been projected to be one of the top-five picks in the draft.

However, his draft stock started to fall in the weeks approaching the draft. With Day 1 of the draft on Thursday, it now seems possible Sanders will fall out of the first half of the first round.

While many of his detractors have started to appear in recent weeks, Shedeur Sanders has had his criticism throughout the draft process. One person who has been critical of Sanders as a prospect for several months is former New York Jets scout Daniel Kelly. He posted a list of 13 character red flags he had for Sanders back in December.

On Thursday, on the morning of the draft, Daniel Kelly made another post on X, highlighting the red flags and making it clear that he does not think Sanders os as good of a prospect as other people are saying:

"I’ve never seen a prospect in the NFL Draft with more character red flags than Shedeur Sanders. I don’t know how any team could watch these 13 video clips on his timeline (below) and still feel good about bringing him in at the game’s most important and visible position."

Expand Tweet

Shedeur Sanders still has some supporters who think he should be a top-five pick

Daniel Kelly is not alone in thinking that Shedeur Sanders is not qualified to be a top-five or 10 pick. It appears more likely that he will fall out of the first half of the first round. The Pittsburgh Steelers, with the 21st pick, have been named as a possible destination for the Buffaloes QB.

However, there are still some people in the football world who have faith in Sanders as a top player in the draft. Nebraska head coach and former NFL head coach Matt Rhule told ESPN insider Pete Thamel on Wednesday that he would still draft Sanders in the top three:

"I would take him No. 3 overall. Without a question. I think he's tough. You can quote me on this. This is how strong I feel. He took 12 hits against us. Twelve hits. There were seven sacks. He's accurate, smart. Sees coverages. Can run if he has to. He's gone to two places that haven't won and they won"

It will be interesting to see where Sanders lands on Thursday night.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

Know More

Colorado Buffaloes Fan? Check out the latest Colorado Buffaloes depth chart, schedule, and roster updates all in one place

Edited by Rajdeep Barman