Mel Kiper’s constant harping on Shedeur Sanders’ slide through the 2025 NFL Draft ticked some viewers off.
It additionally ticked off Rece Davis, who stated yelling into the void in regards to the league is a meaningless act, and tried to deliver Kiper again to what was at hand on the ESPN broadcast.
Nevertheless, Davis, who hosted the community’s protection of Rounds 4-7 after doing ABC for Rounds 1-3 on Thursday and Friday, insists there isn’t a animosity between the coworkers throughout a latest look on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.”
“It’s fine. I didn’t even know there was an issue until I started getting texts like you were saying,” Davis stated. “It’s sort of part and parcel of what we do. Sometimes, for the analyst’s own good and for the good of the show, you challenge their position. Mel’s great. I love working with Mel. And he’s the reason the draft is what it is, in my opinion.”
In the course of the second day of the draft, ESPN’s lead analyst couldn’t comprehend the slide of the polarizing former Colorado quarterback.
“I think it’s disgusting,” Kiper stated. “I don’t understand what the heck’s going on with this. Fifth player on my board, it’s never happened in 47 years where a player that high has dropped this far into the fourth round at quarterback.”
And even after Sanders lastly was chosen by the Browns through the fifth spherical because the No. 144 general choose, Kiper nonetheless couldn’t come again all the way down to earth, calling the NFL “clueless.”
“The NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks! Clueless!..” Kiper stated.
Louis Reddick chimed in, concluding his argument in opposition to Kiper with: “The draft has spoken.”
Davis then stated, “That’s the key, Mel. It’s not putting a value judgement on whether those picks were right or wrong…Whether you like it or you don’t like it. Whether they are fair or unfair, you have to deal with it. And now Shedeur Sanders has to deal with it….And I think yelling at the NFL about it is not productive.”
“First of all, and I’m not doing that thing that Pete Thamel accuses me of, where I say two things nice about somebody and then offer a critique or something,” Davis continued on the Outkick podcast. “However, the rationale there have been…regardless of the quantity was in Detroit is basically on account of what Mel’s completed for the draft. And Mel’s job is to make his rankings of the gamers, and defend them. And I didn’t thoughts him disagreeing, and I don’t thoughts him saying something he needed to say once we’re there. However I believed that as a gaggle, the half we had been overlooking was the previous Occam’s razor philosophy — the more than likely clarification for one thing might be right. We don’t know for positive.
“But it was almost certain that at that point in the draft that something had happened in the pre-draft process involving Shedeur Sanders that was keeping teams from taking him. Now, I think it’s a reasonable debate if you say he’s not a top-five quarterback on tape at this time. I’m not sure that it’s reasonable that he’s not a first or second-round type guy. That seems a little unreasonable to me. So, if you go beyond that, then something else probably happened. And my point was I didn’t think we were giving that the proper credence. If teams are drafting a guy they’re not 1000% sold on is going to be their franchise quarterback… then you have to bigger than your problems.”
Sanders definitely wasn’t greater than his posed issues, from coping with his outspoken father Deion Sanders to botching a few of his NFL interviews on account of an absence of consideration to element.
Nonetheless, the draft guru was an enormous believer in Sanders that he had him ranked his finest quarterback coming into the draft.
Kiper ranked Sanders because the No. 5 general participant on his large board — one spot forward of fellow quarterback Cam Ward, who went No. 1 general.
