Shedeur Sanders’ free fall down the board was the story of draft weekend. The former Colorado star not only slid out of the first round, where some thought he would likely be drafted, but he fell all the way to the fifth round where the Cleveland Browns finally ended his slide at No. 144 overall.
Rams Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson believes there’s a reason for his slide. During an interview on the “Roggin and Rodney” show on AM570 LA Sports, Dickerson said he heard from a source that the NFL told teams not to draft Sanders because the league wanted to “make an example out of him.”
“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 went on to say that later on in the draft, someone called the Browns and actually told them to draft him, encouraging them to ignore what the league had previously said.
“And he said that, I won’t say who, somebody called the Cleveland Browns and said, ‘Don’t do that. Draft him.’ Because they weren’t going to draft him either. They weren’t going to draft him. They were forced into drafting him because somebody made a call to them.”
The Los Angeles Rams will face Sanders on Saturday in the preseason finale, getting a look at the rookie quarterback out of Colorado. He missed the Browns’ second preseason game with an oblique injury but in the opener, he looked good with 138 yards passing and two touchdowns in a 30-10 win over the Panthers.
Back in April, Dickerson thought the Rams should’ve drafted Sanders when he started sliding down the board, knowing the cost would’ve been cheap.
“I don’t see, and this is my opinion, why didn’t we draft Shedeur Sanders?” Dickerson said. “We could’ve got him cheap. We needed a backup quarterback. And I see we got Garoppolo and what’s the other kid’s name from Georgia? He seems like they’re doing a pretty good job. But I thought that would’ve been – we talked about it, Matt Stafford possibly this will be his last year if he got hurt. Just throw him into the mix. It wouldn’t have hurt anything. It would’ve cost you, what? A fourth-round pick or something like that?”
Sanders had been competing for the starting job in Cleveland, but the Browns named Joe Flacco their QB1 to open the year. Flacco, Sanders and Dillon Gabriel will all play against the Rams on Saturday but when Week 1 opens up, it’ll be Flacco under center in Cleveland.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams Hall of Famer claims NFL told teams ‘do not draft’ Shedeur Sanders
Reporting by Cameron DaSilva, Rams Wire / Rams Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
