Amid Shedeur Sanders’ NFL Draft freefall, CBS college football analyst Ross Tucker has shed more light on a ‘very unusual’ experience with the former Colorado pᴀsser while he was in college.
Sanders, who ultimately fell to the fifth round of the NFL Draft late last month, was meant to meet with Tucker in a production meeting last year ahead of CBS’ broadcast of a Colorado-Colorado State game.
But as Tucker explained on the Dan Patrick Show this week, Sanders skipped out on the meetings entirely after initially rescheduling due to an injury treatment.
‘We weren’t really given a reason, but we did not talk to Shedeur at the production meetings, which, as you know, starting quarterback, especially high-profile player like that, very unusual,’ Tucker said, before revealing another strange aspect of the story.
‘I walk out of the H๏τel, and there’s a pickup truck in front of the H๏τel, and Shedeur is just sitting in the back of the pickup truck,’ he recalled of the day that the meeting was rescheduled to.
‘It just made me wonder,’ Tucker continued. ‘People asked me, NFL people asked me after that game, ‘What did you think of Shedeur?’ And I said, ‘I didn’t get to talk to him.’ Maybe he’s the greatest kid ever, maybe he’s a bad kid. I don’t know. But I told them the story, and they just kind of nodded their head.’
Shedeur Sanders reportedly skipped out on a production meeting last season
He ultimately landed with the Cleveland Browns with the 144th pick in the NFL Draft
.@RossTuckerNFL recounts a story about Shedeur Sanders skipping the production meeting ahead of Colorado vs. Colorado State. pic.twitter.com/v5qTwEdu1l
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) April 30, 2025
After the quarterback – who was at one point mooted to be a top-five overall selection – fell to the 144th pick last week, his approach to the NFL Draft process has been scrutinized heavily.
The quarterback notably did not meet with most teams at the Combine, and also did not participate in drills in Indianapolis.
And leaks have begun to emerge that the meetings that he did hold did not go particularly well.
One reported story applies to his pre-Draft talks with the Giants, who did extensive work scouting the former Buffaloes pᴀsser.
Read More Shedeur Sanders’ rep gets in angry feud with Cleveland radio host just days after Browns drafted him 
However, according to reporter Albert Breer, the meeting went south after Sanders essentially failed an ᴀssignment.
‘The Giants one, they give the players an install, and there are mistakes intentionally put in the install,’ Breer told 98.5 The Sports Hub. ‘He didn’t catch them and got called on it, and it didn’t go well after that… he was pissed that they did that to him.’
Tucker, meanwhile, acknowledged that Sanders’ apparently questionable interviews likely made teams ‘very nervous’ when deciding whether or not to draft him.
Ultimately, five quarterbacks were taken before Sanders in the NFL Draft, including his new Browns teammate, Dillon Gabriel, who was selected ahead of him in the third round.
The Browns also have Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and an injured Deshaun Watson on the roster, so Sanders will be entering an extremely crowded quarterback room following his slide.
