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 25 years old, a strapping 6-foot-4 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, when he threw for 3,195 yards, 23 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Dude was the only quarterback taken early in the second round of the 2025 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. 92. Dillon Gabriel? Tapped by the Browns at No. 94.
Shedeur, Mel Kiper’s “best available,” remained on the board at the end of Friday night, through the first three rounds of the draft. The Cleve 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 3? Mercy me.
Did Deion Sanders put a tariff on Cleveland? Is there a trade war between Boulder and the Meadowlands?
On one hand, you felt sorry for No. 2 as he slid. And slid. And slid. Nobody throws for 134 passing touchdowns and 14,347 yards over four college seasons if they’re all hat and no cattle.
On the other hand, you wonder if Shedeur got some 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 program. It’s made Coach Prime one of the top 10 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 player 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 game, 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 told 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 100% certainty what happens to Shedeur when things hit the fan on a football team 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 immediately 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 said 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. 12 raising Cain on the perimeter. In four games in which Hunter played a few or no snaps in 2023, Sanders threw for 10 scores with two picks while averaging almost 280 passing yards. In two games last fall with limited or no Travis: five scores, three picks and 319 passing yards per game.
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 probably not the ideal public 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’ IMMEDIATELY by a team that wants to WIN. Good luck Shedeur, and say hello to your wonderful father!”
Shedeur was not picked immediately.
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 ’80s and, more recently, 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 2014, 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 8 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, mind you: Shedeur’s old running mate Travis Hunter found a nice landing spot as the No. 2 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: 1) Proximity to his extended family in Florida; 2) a young, good (ish) QB in Trevor Lawrence to find him the rock; 3) a faceless, “meh” franchise that has nothing to lose and should happily let him play wherever he wants; and 4) a comparatively small media market. The Jags need a star, need a face. Heisman Hunter ticks both boxes immediately.
Sanders could be that face, too. But as of late Friday night, Shedeur, the golden arm with the diamond watch, was still on the clock, 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.
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