Keeler: Shedeur Sanders’ draft slide proves there’s one game Deion Sanders can’t change: The NFL

Man it Shoughed to be Shedeur Sanders Friday night Wait You haven t heard of Tyler Shough Welcome to the party The last name is pronounced Shuck by the way He s years old a strapping -foot- dude from Chandler Ariz Shough played college ball for seven seasons and three schools a road that weaved through Oregon Texas Tech and Louisville He only appeared in more than seven games in a season once though last fall with the Cardinals with whom he threw for yards touchdowns six interceptions And he was the only quarterback taken early in the second round of the NFL Draft And the third QB selected overall As Coach Prime might say Aw Shoughs Cam Ward Gone Jaxson Dart Gone Shough Gone Jalen Milroe Gone snapped up by Seattle with pick No Dillon Gabriel Tapped by Cleveland at No Shedeur Mel Kiper s best available remained on the board through p m MT on Friday through two whole rounds and largest part of the third The Browns passed on CU s best-ever passer five times The Giants passed on him three times and even traded up late in the first round to draft a QB Dart who wasn t him Shedeur heard his name called dozens of times during ESPN s draft coverage Just not by anybody at the podium in Green Bay Day Mercy me On one hand you feel sorry for No as he slid And slid And slid Nobody throws for passing touchdowns and yards over four college seasons if they re all hat and no cattle On the other hand you wonder if Shedeur got specific questionable advice from those who should ve known better The Sanders Family guard their trust and value control Of the narrative Of perceptions Of a football venture It s made Coach Prime one of the top highest-paid college football coaches in the country and turned his CU Buffs into must-see TV Deion Sanders single-handedly made the Buffs a national brand albeit one tied inextricably to his own Yet here s the thing about the NFL and about NFL front offices in general They don t give a hoot Nothing and nobody is bigger than the Shield Well except Tom Brady Until you win in the league the league calls the shots A athlete can get the type of clout to dictate terms at the next level but they ve got to go out and play well enough to earn it first Shedeur didn t throw at the combine He didn t run at the combine He didn t participate in the Senior Bowl His advisers followed their CU playbook We re doing this on our terms We re going to change the draft battle too In Boulder it s worked like a charm The NFL wasn t interested The postgames where you re throwing your teammates under the bus Ourlads com analyst Dave Syvertsen notified me earlier in the week that wouldn t fly in the NFL Especially when your dad s not in the locker room with you Deion has been Shedeur s coach for as long as anybody can remember Again it s worked out so far But no pro coach knows with certainty what happens to Shedeur when things hit the fan on a football company where the buck doesn t stop with his dad To me it seems like if I had to point to one thing it s the Nebraska loss last fall early in the year where he straightaway threw his offensive line under the bus Syvertsen continued That was a huge red flag for me And that was one to a lot of people More people than we d figured apparently Something sure as heck was commented to somebody Maybe several somebodies Like Nikola Jokic ex-CU Buffs great Travis Hunter made everybody around him better But I also spent two years watching Shedeur dice defenses without No raising Cain on the perimeter In four games in which Hunter played a scarce or no snaps in Sanders threw for scores with two picks while averaging almost passing yards In two games last fall with limited or no Travis five scores three picks and passing yards per tournament Everybody remembers the beatdown in Oregon But have you already forgotten how Shedeur matched Caleb Williams drive for drive while Hunter was in sweats On the flip side Shedeur spent Thursday night watching the first round from a custom-made room with his Legendary brand emblazoned everywhere Which in hindsight was allegedly not the ideal masses rebuttal against anonymous coaches who threw shade his way You know a story s got legs when Donald Trump decides to weigh in on social media The president went to his Truth Social app to call NFL teams STUPID in all caps for not taking Shedeur He then praised Deion for two sentences before declaring that Shedeur has PHENOMENAL GENES and is all set for Greatness He should be picked RIGHT NOW by a band that wants to WIN Good luck Shedeur and say hello to your wonderful father Shedeur was not picked promptly It should also be noted that Trump loves to needle the NFL as it s one of the country clubs that repeatedly rejected his membership The real-estate mogul TV personality reportedly made a play for the Baltimore Colts in the s and more in recent weeks took a run at the Bills Like Coach Prime our Commander-in-Chief rarely forgets a slight Alas as a football pundit he s got only a slightly better batting average than Kiper does right about now One of the last times Trump went to bat this strongly for a rookie quarterback was in and that QB was Johnny Manziel Oy vey Teams are making a big mistake not taking Johnny Manziel then-citizen Trump posted to then-Twitter on May of that year He is going to be really good and exciting to watch Manziel was neither really good nor exciting to watch in the NFL It s not all gloomy at the Champions Center Shedeur s old running mate Travis Hunter ascertained a nice landing spot as the No pick overall to Jacksonville You wouldn t wish a Jaguars life on anybody but Jacksonville s got at least things four things going for it that ll help the two-way wonder in theory Proximity to his extended family in Florida a young good ish QB in Trevor Lawrence to find him the rock a faceless meh franchise that has nothing to lose and should happily let him play wherever he wants and a comparatively small media sector The Jags need a star need a face Heisman Hunter ticks both boxes promptly Sanders could be that face too But as of p m Denver time Friday Shedeur was still waiting while his draft stock Shoughed wind And you wonder how much of the last four months in hindsight he would do all over again