Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) runs for a short gain during NFL training camp at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus, Wednesday, July 30, 2025, in Berea, Ohio. PHOTO USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES Eric Dickerson says the NFL told its teams to make an example out of Shedeur Sanders during the draft.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer joined the Roggin and Rodney Show on AM 570 LA Sports, where he alleged the league colluded against one of the most polarizing prospects in recent memory.
“The NFL told teams do not draft him. We gonna make an example out of him,” Dickerson said. “Somebody called the Browns, and said don’t do that. Don’t draft him. They weren’t gonna draft him.”
Dickerson doubled down, claiming the information came from a “very good source.”
NFL conspiracy theorists had already started buzzing during the draft that something strange was unfolding with Sanders. Leading up to the draft, the Colorado quarterback was widely considered a top flight prospect. Draft analysts couldn’t all have been this wrong, right? There’s no way a guy projected at worst a second round pick slipped all the way to the fifth without something else going on. Right?
There were reports Sanders tanked some interviews — maybe intentionally — with teams he wasn’t interested in. His father, Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, didn’t help matters when he suggested he’d be involved with which team drafted his son. Some franchises feared they’d be drafting the whole Sanders brand.
Ultimately, most fans and analysts chalked it up to an overrated quarterback class. After the Titans took Cam Ward No. 1 overall, no other QB was selected until the Giants traded back into the fifth round for Jaxson Dart.
Former wideout Chad Johnson, a vocal Sanders supporter, backed Dickerson’s claim on social media, saying the collusion was well known.
The Browns finally stopped Sanders’ slide, drafting him No. 144 overall in the fifth round — the same team some mocks had taking him at No. 2.
But Cleveland isn’t making it easy. Sanders has spent the summer buried on the depth chart, repping with the third and fourth stringers. Joe Flacco will start. Kenny Pickett, acquired in a trade, hasn’t played in the preseason due to a hamstring injury. Rookie Dillon Gabriel has been inconsistent but still ahead of Sanders.
Even after throwing two touchdowns in his thrilling preseason debut against the Carolina Panthers, Sanders hasn’t moved up. He remains QB4.
Whenever Sanders does finally get his shot — in Cleveland or somewhere else — it’ll be one of the most-watched debuts in recent NFL history. Collusion be damned.
