Although NFL teams spend millions of dollars on their scouting departments, drafting college athletes into the league is an inexact science.
The best and brightest minds in the league, armed with all the data an employer could ever want from an employee, still miss on draft prospects more often than anyone would like to admit.
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As the NFL has grown, the popularity of its annual draft has also grown exponentially, as have the number of eyeballs on young college athletes getting ready to become pros.
Now that college athletes are signing seven- and eight-figure deals before they reach the league, the scrutiny teenage athletes face has never been so intense.
The three-day 2025 NFL Draft wrapped up on Saturday, April 26, with 224 players selected over seven rounds.
But no player received more headlines than Shedeur Sanders, whom the Cleveland Browns selected in the fifth round with the 144th pick.
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Sanders, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, had a stellar college career, finishing eighth in Heisman Trophy voting this past season and earning a high first-round grade among most draft analysts.
Unfortunately for Sanders, his decision not to participate in the combine and some off-the-cuff remarks from his father about teams his son would and wouldn’t play for cost Sanders some draft position.
And a whole lot of money.
Heisman winner Travis Hunter, Sanders wide receiver at the University of Colorado, went with the second overall pick.
Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
Shedeur Sanders’ draft drop cost him big bucks
The Cleveland Browns waited until day 3 of the draft to trade up to take Sanders, the second quarterback the team selected during the draft and the sixth quarterback taken overall.
The NFL uses a rookie pool to determine how much each team can spend to sign its draft picks.
Cleveland had the second overall pick in this year’s draft. If they had picked Sanders at number 2 (which wasn’t far-fetched as recently as last week), their draft slot dictated they sign him to a contract in the $8.4 million range, according to Over the Cap.
Shilo and Shedeur dancing after Shedeur got drafted by the Cleveland Browns.
(via shilosanders/Twitch) pic.twitter.com/qPrVXCoF4c
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 26, 2025
First-round contracts have a bonus sweetener for the team, allowing them a fifth-year option to extend the normally four-year rookie contract by an extra season at a premium price (an average of the salaries of the top players at the position).
Over the life of the rookie four-year deal, Sanders would have received $46.6 million with $8.48 million due in the first year. The second overall pick will get a $30 million signing bonus.
The money allotted for players gets lower the lower a player is drafted.
For Sanders, his fifth-round draft status grants him a 4-year $4.64 million contract with a $447,380 signing bonus, meaning his slide potentially cost him $42 million over the life of that first contract and nearly $7.5 million in the first year.
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If Sanders is the quarterback many evaluators thought he was before going through the draft process, then the money he lost over the weekend won’t matter much.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott signed a four-year, $240 million contract last year. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 2016 draft, just nine slots ahead of where Sanders was picked.
NFL season is still four months away
With the Draft now officially over, organized team activities (OTAs) are the next big thing on the NFL calendar.
OTA offseason workouts start in late May; they are voluntary and only last a couple of days. Mandatory minicamp starts in early June and also only lasts a few days.
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Late July is when training camp and the unofficial preseason starts, leading up to preseason games in August and finally the kickoff of the new season in early September.
Fans are still a ways away from that time, but in the meantime, they have plenty to talk about as the second round of free agency is about to heat up.
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