If there’s one thing we can all learn from Shedeur Sanders, it’s ‘don’t dwell on the negatives.’ Because what went down at the 2025 NFL Draft? It’s straight-up wild! 

We’re talking about a guy who was once hyped as a top-10 lock sliding all the way down to the fifth round as the sixth QB off the board, behind Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough, and even Jalen Milroe. But then, right when it looked like everyone forgot what the former Colorado QB is made of, the Cleveland Browns swooped in with the 144th pick. The fans? They went wild, and yeah, they should. Talent doesn’t care about draft slots. Forget the slide, this one can deliver, and it’s the fans who know it best. 

Still, Shedeur Sanders isn’t the first QB that Cleveland picked. The Browns picked former Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel in the third round. But that didn’t dim the buzz around him. Instead, it gave fans more reason to justify that he’s been snubbed in the draft after The NFL Shop dropped their list. Sports Illustrated shared the jersey sale rankings in an Instagram post on April 29—“Shedeur Sanders has the third-best-selling jersey among NFL draftees.” Well, people do love him. And here’s the interesting part….

Every other player in the top-10 list? All first-rounders. Except Shedeur Sanders. Cleveland had six players before the QB, and you can guess that none of them made it to the list. He’s rubbing shoulders with Travis Hunter and Cam Ward, and he hasn’t even picked an official number yet. Word is, he might rock No. 5 in Cleveland rather than the signature No. 2 he wore across Jackson State and Colorado. 

There’s an even more interesting aspect to this. Shedeur Sanders may be topping The NFL Shop’s list but the numbers are potentially higher than that after an outbreak of fans who slammed the league for allegedly snubbing him. Per Dov Kleiman’s report, “Many NFL fans on TikTok have pledged to purchase Sanders’ jerseys and merchandise exclusively from his official website, rather than from the NFL shop, to support him after being drafted in the 5th round.” The motive behind this is to help him make up for the money he missed out on in the draft, as he’s now projected to make just $4.6M over four years as a fifth-round pick. Yeah, this is the same QB who was at the pinnacle of college football’s NIL earners with a $6.5 million valuation.

Meanwhile, Travis Hunter just made history. The Jacksonville Jaguars pulled a sneaky move, trading up with Cleveland to forfeit four picks to get him at No. 2 overall. He might have fallen behind Cam Ward, who went No. 1 overall to the Tennessee Titans in the draft, but the nation still sees him as a generational talent. Fans want to be like him. No wonder he had the most jersey sales ahead of the former Miami QB, who sits between the two former CU Buffs standouts. But let’s be real, as far as the draft buzz is concerned, Shedeur Sanders sits at the center of it all. 

Shedeur Sanders opens up about his wild draft development 

It’s nothing short of rattling, Shedeur Sanders’ draft ride. But the QB showed us exactly why he’s built different when adversity smacked him in the face. “Nothing really affected me the last couple of days,” he said, as cool as ever. “It’s just understanding faith and that God really has me.” And it wasn’t just the slide.

Some clown—turns out it was the son of Atlanta Falcons DC Jeff Ulbrich—prank-called him during the draft, pretending to be New Orleans Saints GM Mickey Loomis, offering him a fake pick. After officially becoming an NFL player, Shedeur Sanders shrugged it off like a vet—“Of course, I felt like it was a childish act. Everybody does childish things, here and there.” 

During those three days, nobody stayed in the spotlight like Shedeur Sanders. Between the shocking draft drop, the prank drama, and the jersey frenzy, the 23-year-old owned the headlines without even touching an NFL field yet. “I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity, throughout everything,” he said during a Cleveland media conference call. “I don’t ever focus on the negative or even think about the negative, because the positive happened so fast.”

And if Shedeur Sanders’ mindset stays strong, Cleveland might have just pulled off the steal of the 2025 NFL Draft without even realizing it. The best is yet to come.