Super Bowl champion coach shares advice for young QBs after Shedeur Sanders' draft slide

Long before Bruce Arians guided the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship, he served as the offensive coordinator and interim head coach for the 2012 Indianapolis Colts team that had rookie Andrew Luck as its starting quarterback. 

Following Shedeur Sanders' slide to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, Arians explained how he was able to tell during his coaching career whether younger signal-callers would succeed or fail at the highest level. 

"I knew then that when tough times came — and they always do for young quarterbacks — he could handle it," Arians said about Luck for an article published by The Athletic on Wednesday. "It wouldn’t crumble him. And after all my years in the NFL, I think that’s the No. 1 indicator of whether players in general and quarterbacks in particular will succeed or fail: how they handle failure."

It's worth noting that Sanders' experiences at Colorado weren't all sunshine and rainbows. Per Arnie Melendrez Stapleton of The Associated Press, Sanders took an FBS-high 94 sacks over the final two seasons of his collegiate career. 

While Sanders was always a flawed prospect who lacked elite physical traits possessed by top-tier NFL quarterbacks, he and numerous others throughout the football community expected that he'd be a first-round draft choice. After he went undrafted on the night of April 24, he made it known he believed Friday would be his day. 

It wasn't, as he had to wait until the Cleveland Browns traded up to select him with pick No. 144 on Saturday. 

Per numerous reports, the way Sanders handled the predraft process turned teams off and left him having to accept an opportunity to maybe earn a roster spot as part of a Cleveland quarterback room that also includes 40-year-old Joe Flacco, 2022 first-round selection Kenny Pickett and 2025 third-round choice Dillon Gabriel. 

Sanders may want to consider giving Arians a call before training camp opens this summer. 

"Here’s the thing about failure, though: I think you can learn how to handle it," Arians added. "You can train yourself to deal with it the right way, in football and in life. For me, it was always about finding out the why. Why was I not successful? Instead of focusing on the failure itself, focus on the reasons behind it. Was it a lack of preparation, or did I overprepare? Was it technique? Was it execution?"

Sanders likely knows the "why" regarding what happened during the draft. If that experience truly lights a fire under him, he may eventually feel grateful he learned such a valuable lesson so early into his pro career.