Shedeur Sanders fan narratives explained— Breaking down his NFL start

*Editor's note: This is the introduction to a 12-part series which takes an extended look into the early NFL career of Colorado legend Shedeur Sanders and the conversations by fans.

This NFL offseason and specifically ‘camp season’ has been different to say the least. Never in the history of the league has a fifth round draft pick garnered this much attention. The reason why is very simple. Shedeur Sanders experienced the largest Draft slide in NFL history in April. An eventuality that almost no one saw coming.

There was always conjecture over where he would land, but the vast majority of those following the process believed he would land somewhere between 2nd overall and the top 50. A “Top 50” designation is widely believed to represent “instant day one starters”, almost regardless of position. The moment he fell out of that range, everyone from casual fans to professional analysts believed something was afoot. 

Fans can debate the why behind the draft until they are blue in the face. It won’t change anything. The Draft slide happened. No one believes that was purely the result of football analysis. Many believe it wasn’t even something that happened to Shedeur, it happened to Deion.

Based on that volume and intensity of the Sanders family fanbase, that likely made it worse. However, it’s a dangerous dynamic when conspiracy theories and knee jerk reactions win the debate. It's difficult to examine this without accepting the Draft slide was about more than football. It is possible to accept Shedeur slid for reasons beyond completions and touchdowns, while at the same time looking at the situation through the lens of the operation of football. Which by and large is not happening. 

As we continue this article series, we will examine twelve of the most popular, go-to Shedeur fan narratives. The intention of this series is to counter each and every one of those narratives through the filter of football.  Like anything, viewing the proper context is not just suggested, it's all but required. To view Shedeur’s status on the depth chart, his first team reps, and overall position within a QB competition without considering the football aspect is, in a word, insane. It's important to realize, shooting down the narratives doesn’t invalidate how a fan thinks about the circumstances. It simply requires looking at all the information through the proper lens. 

Once fans begin looking at this situation within the concept of how football operations are run, the history of the league, various comparables, the down right silly, soap opera level narratives will seem to be. Fans have every reason imaginable to consider the Draft slide was less than normal. However, minicamps, training camp and the preseason have not been a continuation of that or some larger conspiracy. In this series we will go into these narratives and aim to show why they are not applicable in this situation.