One of the best running backs in NFL history says the league told teams not to select Shedeur Sanders in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson spoke with Fred Roggin and Rodney Peete on the ‘Roggin and Rodney’ show on AM 570 LA Sports. The longtime Los Angeles Rams star said he thought the Rams should’ve selected Sanders in the draft.
He added what he heard about messaging to teams ahead of the draft about the Colorado standout.
‘I tell you this much, what I heard from someone that’s in the NFL that the NFL told [teams] don’t draft him, do not draft him,’ Dickerson said. ‘We’re going to make an example out of him. And this came from a very good source, a very good source.’
Dickerson’s source also said that league officials called the Cleveland Browns during the draft after Sanders fell much further than anticipated to change the prior messaging.
The Colorado product was widely viewed as a first-round prospect but was still available by the start of the fifth round where the Browns took him at No. 144 overall.
‘He said that – I won’t say who – somebody called the Cleveland Browns and said ‘don’t do that, draft him,” Dickerson said. ‘Because they weren’t going to draft him either… They were forced into drafting him because somebody made a call to them.’
‘So what was the objective? He doesn’t get picked, he’s an undrafted free agent?’ Roggin asked.
‘That’s exactly what was going to happen,’ Dickerson said. ‘They were going to have him not get drafted to basically show you ‘this is what happens when you do this.’ I mean, look, [Roggin], the NFL’s got all kinds of power, they do all kinds of stuff. You know it and I know it too.’
Sanders was the second quarterback the Browns selected in the draft after taking Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel in the third round, No. 94 overall. Sanders was the team’s final draft selection.
He played well in the Browns’ preseason opener against the Carolina Panthers. He completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns in the 30-10 win.
An oblique injury kept him out of the Browns’ second preseason game against the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles but he should be good to go for the team’s finale against the Rams.
Cleveland named veteran Joe Flacco their starter for the 2025 NFL season. It’s now a battle to be his backup between Sanders, Gabriel and fellow veteran Kenny Pickett.