Potential top draft pick Shedeur Sanders shot back at the presumption that his draft stock is dipping and the feeling the media is helping to push that narrative.
Sanders’ comments came on a live stream while he was working out with fitness influencer Bradley Martin, according to Awful Announcing, and after he noticed the cameraman had been wearing a Raiders hat.
The person expressed a hope that Las Vegas would trade up in the NFL draft to select Sanders, which prompted the comment.
“Well everybody is trying to make my stock drop right now, so who knows,” Sanders said. “You know just how life gets. But it is what it is. It’s fool’s gold, it isn’t real. Don’t believe the media.”
It wasn’t clear which media reports he was referring to with the comment, but Sanders has had some support after a narrative started to come out of the combine about him being “arrogant.”
NFL reporter Josina Anderson reported that an unnamed quarterbacks coach had referred to Sanders as “brash” and “arrogant.”
The coach was reportedly with a team picking in the top seven of this year’s draft.
Anderson did push back on the assessment from the unnamed QB coach.
“I’m just sharing that this coach’s personal assessment is the direct opposite from how Sanders came across to many reporters in his press conference with the media at the Combine,” she wrote. “Sanders appeared to go out of his way to acknowledge multiple media members, regardless if they were recognizable or not. He seemed cordial, polite, witty, thoughtful, along with being confident (as many athletes are). Alternately, these observations were distinctly different from how another QB prospect came off to some in the media last year in Indy.”
Dan Orlovsky also recently stood up for Sanders in a video he posted to X and said that “you’re out of your mind if you think Shedeur can’t play.”
Sanders, who could be a target of the Giants at No. 3, was a star during his time at Colorado where he finished his final season there with 4,134 passing yards and 37 touchdown passes.
Sanders was also named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in 2024.