NFL Network's Kyle Brandt slams media over Shedeur Sanders draft coverage

NFL Network analyst Kyle Brant railed against the media narrative and the theories around why Shedeur Sanders slid in the draft to the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round.

Brandt appeared on "Good Morning Football" to address the Sanders slide that took hold over the weekend. Sports pundits immediately made the issue about race. Stephen A. Smith called it "Kaepernick-level collusion," while former Congressman Jamaal Bowman theorized "America continues to fear strong Black men."

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Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders, #2, talks to ESPN after the University of Colorado NFL Showcase at the CU Indoor Practice Facility in Boulder, Colorado, on April 4, 2025. (Michael Ciaglo-Imagn Images)

This did not sit well with Brandt. He said Sanders slipping into the fifth round started as a "football story to a drunken media story."

"It became one of these seismic media rodeos where you can sit there and watch people that you’ve followed for years say things you know they don’t believe or at best they were saying from some emotional place where they were so unhinged and off the reservation … I mean, I’m hearing things like conspiracy, collusion – what are you talking about?" Brandt asked.

"Do you not think that if one team thought Shedeur Sanders would help them win one more game than the other guy, that they wouldn’t immediately draft him? They would. I promise you. These coaches, these GMs are obsessed, desperate, nomadic people who just want to win games and not move their families to another city after they’re fired."

Brandt described the media conversation as "so off-putting" that it makes NFL fans "root against" Sanders because of how pundits were conveying their off-the-rails opinions on the matter.

NFL Network host Kyle Brandt during the Cincinnati Bengals game against the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Feb. 13, 2022. (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

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"It’s sad, and it’s stupid," he continued. "And when something is this far gone, like this story has been on to planet Mars, this far into the ether, this so reckless in the commentary, you gotta search for some simple truths. … No teams loved Shedeur in the draft. Nobody loved him as a player. If anyone loved him, they would have drafted him way earlier. Maybe some liked him but nobody loved him."

Brandt theorized that if teams were not going to play Sanders right away, they did not want the celebrity and the attention that comes with him, especially as a backup quarterback.

"I don’t know if that’s a bat-bleepin insane enough take to keep up with the all frontrunners talking about Shedeur right now, but that’s my only practical reaction to what happened."

Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders, #2, before the game against the Utah Utes at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado, on Nov. 16, 2024. (Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images)

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Sanders was chosen 144th overall and will now compete to make the roster with Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco and fellow draftmate Dillon Gabriel.

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