Lions GM Brad Holmes' thoughts on Browns' QB Shedeur Sanders' slide in the 2025 NFL Draft point to fans and media only knowing part of the story

The NFL Draft always brings some sort of drama. This year, everyone had their eyes on the same thing, and that was Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. 

At one point, Sanders was considered to be the top prize of this draft, and that point wasn't that long ago. Then, during the draft, this guy who was mocked to be the first overall pick quite a few times went on a drastic slide down the board and eventually got picked by the Browns in the fifth round. 

There were a lot of reasons being thrown around. There were reports that he had bombed all of his interviews at the Combine; on top of that, he didn't perform there either. There were also concerns that his dad, Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, said that if Shedeur didn't wind up on a team that the family liked, he would work to get his son out of there. Then there were thoughts that the league was colluding to teach the Sanders family a lesson. 

We'll probably never know what truly happened, but Lions GM Brad Holmes, who is probably more privy to what went down, was asked about the Sanders situation, and this is what he had to say:

“Yeah, it’s – I just think everybody has their evaluations, and I do think that – a little bit about what I was telling you here is there’s just a lot of information that may not be available, or even the work. So if you only hear or see that a player’s supposed to be this, that’s all you hear, and if you don’t take the time out to get more of the information or watch all the film, watch all the film from the past two years – not just him but for any prospects, it’s just – it’s hard. And again, that information’s not available, so look, I never want to see someone be in a tough situation where – but I’ve seen it happen before, and I’m not going to say that I’m blaming one person or the other, but sometimes people, they have a, let’s call it – not the player, but the media can put a spin on something that might not be the whole story.”

So there you go. Holmes seems to be alluding to the idea that fans and media just don't have the full story on what went down with Sanders. We'll see what happens in Cleveland pretty soon, but right now it would seem as though the burden of proof is on Sanders, and it's up to him to make sure everyone forgets the pre-draft process and the slide.