Recent interview suggests Raiders made correct draft decision

Missing out on Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the draft was seen as odd for the Las Vegas Raiders in April, but it has looked better in the months since.

A fifth-round pick of the Cleveland Browns, many were concerned about Sanders’s maturity and ability to stay engaged in a NFL locker room setting. So far, those fears have not been entirely wrong, as Sanders has been cited twice this month alone for speeding in the state of Ohio. It would have been a questionable look for the Raiders, as the team is still under scrutiny for the Henry Ruggs incident in 2021.

Not only has Sanders’s conduct off the field been called into question, but a new report suggests he is still quite a ways away from being trusted with NFL snaps.

A prominent NFL insider adds another wrinkle to Sanders’s questionable pre-draft interview process.

During a radio interview with Cleveland’s “92.3 The Fan,” NFL insider Albert Breer brought to light another aspect as to why teams shied away from bringing in Sanders.

“I think Shedeur—and this isn’t any fault of his own—had a lot more ground to cover than Dillon Gabriel,” Breer said. “He had a bigger learning curve than Dillon Gabriel. There were teams that were stunned by how little Shedeur knew relative to what they thought. He was pretty far behind.”

The fact that Breer mentioned Sanders being far behind compared to Gabriel, who was drafted by the Brown two rounds earlier, speaks volumes.

The NFL marks a significant change for Sanders, who has not had any coach other than his father Deion going back to high school. As a result, Sanders’s knowledge of offensive schemes is somewhat limited, as well as his ability to read NFL defenses. The Raiders might have still made it work, with Sanders likely behind Geno Smith and Aidan O’Connell, but it is clear that they would have needed a decent amount of infrastructure in place to give the second-generation player a chance to succeed.

It may be some time before the Raiders and the NFL at large can see if Sanders can rise up to the challenge in front of him.