Travis and Jason Kelce offered their thoughts on Shedeur Sanders’ free fall down the 2025 NFL Draft – leading to his eventual selection by their hometown Cleveland Browns.

Sanders had been projected to be one of the first quarterbacks taken in the draft – with some believing he could be a top-3 pick in the months prior to the event.

Instead, he fell from that first round projection all the way down to the fifth round at pick No. 144 to the Browns. 

The Kelce’s, who grew up in the suburb of Cleveland Heights, talked about why Sanders may have fallen and what this means for the team on the latest episode of their ‘New Heights’ podcast.

‘I love this for Cleveland, god I love this for Cleveland,’ Travis said when the brothers began discussing the topic. 

‘I really do man. The Browns fan deep down in my heart is just like f*** yeah. You get a swag champ that works his ᴀss off that has something to prove now – not that he didn’t before, but he’s got that chip on his shoulder, I’m sure, because of how much he’s dropped.’

Jason and Travis Kelce offered their thoughts on Shedeur Sanders’ NFL Draft slide

Last week, Sanders went from a projected first rounder to a fifth round pick by Cleveland

‘How could you not,’ Jason replied, talking about Sanders feeling the need to prove himself. 

‘If you’re at all a self-confident person who believes in themselves, and you’re touted by a lot of people, and you have the college career that he had, how could you not be upset that you fell this far? 

‘Still should be happy that you’re in the NFL, but there’s a lot of quarterbacks that were taken above him. there’s a quarterback that the browns selected above him: Dillon Gabriel was selected in the third round.’

Then the two brothers addressed the rumors of Sanders’ poor performance in pre-draft interviews with teams.

Those rumors from anonymous NFL executives and team decision makers suggested that the former Colorado quarterback was so bad that franchises continued to take him off their boards – so much so, that one former NFL MVP believed that he could have gone undrafted entirely.

‘I think whoever’s the f***ing anonymous person that’s f***ing saying this should f***ing come out and say who they were. Like what the f*** is that about,’ Travis said about the rumors. 

‘If you’re gonna f***ing leak that type of s**t, f***ing be the one that says ‘yeah it just didn’t go well for us’ don’t f***ing say that we’re anonymous, that’s so f***ing lame. 

‘I don’t know I just feel like there’s no validity to it. I’m not sure why he dropped, I’m not sure whether it was the interviews or whether it was stuff they saw on film. 

Travis believes that the rumors about Sanders’ poor draft interviews were ‘f***ing lame’

Travis added that what he saw on film suggested Sanders would be selected much earlier

‘What I saw on film, I thought he was a way higher pick and I think that’s all that should matter.

‘It doesn’t seem like he’s a terrible person, it just seems like he’s a motivated football player that’s a part of a big football family, and him and his father have kinda taken over the NCAA football for the past 3-4 years. 

‘And whether that’s something that NFL teams quote-un-quote didn’t want to deal with, I feel like this is gonna be such a fresh start for him and now it’s gonna feel… I can see him working his ᴀss off and becoming the starting quarterback in Cleveland at some point.’

Jason offered a more measured take – saying that if these NFL teams had an issue with his off-field behavior, but liked his talent and potential, they would’ve taken him in the first round.

‘Personally, I think a lot of these interviews went poorly or the off-the-field antics between Deion and whatever media stuff Shedeur’s got going on. I think all of that is getting blown way out of proportion as a factor for this,’ Jason said. 

‘I think the reality is… it’s hard to find a great quarterback in this league. If these teams really felt that Shedeur Sanders was a top first-round talent, they would have picked him. That’s what I think. 

‘You mean to tell me if Michael Vick had these same exact off-field things happening, or if he [Shedeur] was Michael Vick’s exact talent, he wouldn’t have been taken in the first round? Of course he would have. Teams said on draft day they don’t think Shedeur Sanders’ potential warrants being drafted that high at the next level. 

‘Now, for whatever reason that is, I don’t know why that is, I barely watched Shedeur Sanders. … There’s too many players with character issues – with concerns every year coming out about criminal behavior, off-field antics, and other things – that get drafted in the first round. And they get drafted in the first round because they are ballers and the NFL wants great players. 

Meanwhile, Jason believes NFL teams didn’t like the talent they saw in Shedeur’s tape

He did say that Sanders will have a great chance to prove the doubters wrong with the Browns

‘The fact that he got drafted at 144 in the fifth round tells me that maybe these off-field things mattered a little bit, but the bottom line is these teams just do not think the potential of Shedeur Sanders panning out at the next level is high enough to warrant an earlier pick. 

‘And teams get this wrong all the time: they got it wrong with Brock Purdy, they got it wrong with Tom Brady. This is not an exact science. 

‘I’m happy Shedeur Sanders is gonna get an opportunity to got to Cleveland because Cleveland wants to replace their starting quarterback, they picked two of them in the draft.’