“This is not collusion”: Colin Cowherd compares Shedeur Sanders’ draft drama to Nico Iamaleava's NIL fiasco

The 2025 NFL draft was a nightmare for Shedeur Sanders and Coach Prime. After being seen as a top-five prospect throughout the 2024 season, the former Colorado quarterback faced an unexpected fall. The Cleveland Browns drafted Sanders as the 144th pick of the 2025 NFL draft.

Theories of the NFL franchises taking a pledge and colluding against Sanders have been circulating online. On Saturday, speaking on "The Colin Cowherd Podcast," Colin Cowherd dismissed the idea, noting that he believes Shedeur's draft slide had something to do with his father, Deion Sanders's, attitude, instead.

He compares it to Nico Iamaleava's NIL drama with the Tennessee Volunteers, where the quarterback's father meddled in his business, leading to Nico and Tennessee parting ways. Cowherd said:

“Shedeur is a prospect. He's going to be an employee of a business, and your dad is saying - 'there are teams we will not we will not play for,' and that's directed at many of the teams that were interested. I've said on my show before -'quarterback dad has become pageant mom,' where the heart is in the right place, but sometimes they do a disservice to their kids.”

“We saw this with Nico Iamaleava, the quarterback for Tennessee. Great program, dad stepped in, son didn't show up to a spring practice, we're out of Here, and he had no market… So college football sent a message. It wasn't collusion, people weren't on the phone, and this is not collusion.” [03:20]

Sanders will join a Browns QB room stacked with fellow draft picks - Dillon Gabriel, Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco.

Mel Kiper was outraged over Shedeur Sanders sliding in 2025 NFL draft

The biggest story of the 2025 NFL draft was Shedeur Sanders' fall to the fifth round. The atmosphere on the ESPN set in Green Bay, Wisconsin, had been tense for over two days. Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN’s veteran draft expert, had been openly frustrated.

After the Browns selected Shedeur, Kiper expressed his opinions to fellow analyst Louis Riddick.

“This is not about, ‘Can you play the position?’ This is about, ‘Do we want you to play the position for us?'” said Riddick.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Kiper cut in abruptly.

“That’s a whole (different) discussion that we’ve had in many different ways for weeks and months now,” Riddick stated.

“Is he not one of the toughest quarterbacks you’ve ever seen?” Kiper asked.

“Mel ... this isn’t about quarterback traits and quarterback characteristics, personal football (characteristics)” Riddick replied. “That’s not about this. This is personal.”

“Has he had an off-the-field issue? No, he has not,” Kiper said. "The NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks! Clueless," he added.