Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers thought Shedeur Sanders deserved better in the 2025 NFL Draft process.
During an appearance on Carmelo Anthony’s “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast, Nabers disagreed with criticisms of the former Colorado quarterback — and said he lost some respect for people after Shedeur fell to the fifth round at 144th overall to the Browns.
“You don’t do that to somebody like that. You can’t knock his talent,” Nabers said before mentioning some of Sanders’ accomplishments on the field. “Some things you just can’t knock. Come on, bro. We gotta stop having feelings with how people play linger. Yeah, he might have some things he might say on camera, off the field, that don’t have to do with how he plays football.
“We’re here for one thing and that’s to play football. Everybody’s got different personalities… we’re all made different. So for them to judge him on just the things he says or how he carries himself… You don’t do that, not to a kid like that, that’s been working their whole life — that’s been told ‘Deion’s kids are never gonna be as good as him.’ And he plays quarterback. Deion played corner so he’s not even teaching him about that position.
“For them to do that, I lost a little respect for it… That’s the next generation [of Black quarterbacks] and i kind of feel bad for how that happened to him because he really played his ᴀss off… This boy was the talk of the top two QBs in his class. There’s no way in hell he goes fifth round.”
Anthony, who was “H๏τ” about the topic, explained that Shedeur was collateral damage in “an attack” on his father, Deion Sanders, who was his coach at Colorado.
“This is the part about the game that is wack,” Anthony said. “We talk about the dark side of sports. This is an attack at Prime in a sense. It’s an attack on a Black family and a Black man who raised his young men to be men.
“Prime ain’t do nothing wrong. You don’t hear nothing bad about Shedeur [and Deion’s kids]… This is a family business… Just because it’s in sports and Prime is in a seat that a lot of people want and he’s doing it his way and he’s talking his talk… it’s ain’t about wins and loses, it’s about developing these boys into men.
Anthony and his co-host Kid Mero said they didn’t believe reports that Shedeur acted enтιтled and purposely tanked interviews with teams that he didn’t want to play for.
“Get the f–k out of here,” Anthony said.
Shedeur, who was the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year as a senior last fall, was once a projected top-three pick.
The тιтans selected quarterback Cam Card out of Miami with the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, and the Jaguars took hybrid star Travis Hunter, who was Shedeur’s teammate at Colorado and the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner.
The Giants used their No. 3 overall pick to take Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter.
Anthony tried to decode the Giants’ logic of pᴀssing on Shedeur with a veteran QB room that consists of Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston — who signed short-term deals with Big Blue in March.
“We don’t wanna bring Shedeur in to wait,” Nabers said. “… Already having Russ and Jameis, I’m gonna draft Abdul Carter.”
Shedeur threw a school-record 64 touchdown pᴀsses over two seasons at Colorado.
The school retired his and Hunter’s jerseys last month.
