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Sean Payton Issued Strong Warning to NFL About Shedeur Sanders After Draft Slide

A blunt statement from the Broncos' head coach.

Josh Wilson

Payton is entering his third year coaching the Broncos
Payton is entering his third year coaching the Broncos / @NickFerguson_25 on X (formerly Twitter)
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Shedeur Sanders has become the talk of the NFL draft, but certainly not in the way he, or anyone, expected. Entering day three of the draft, Sanders remains undrafted. While it's not uncommon for successful NFL quarterbacks to go in later rounds of the draft, Sanders was viewed as a first-round pick by many, and at times projected to be the possible top overall pick. Top analysts are beside themselves over the slide.

Among the surprised is Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who spoke briefly about Sanders after Friday night's second- and third-round draft festivities.

"There'll be this chip on his shoulder, and beware, because this guy is gonna play in this league," Payton said after talking about his relationship with his dad and Colorado coach Deion Sanders and his observations of Shedeur since junior high school. He further went on to say he's not sure why Sanders remains undrafted, saying it's too difficult to explain the calculus of the other 31 teams making selections.

The Broncos, of course, also didn't select Sanders, but don't have a need at quarterback with Bo Nix coming off an impressive rookie season under center. Nix led Denver to a postseason appearance in his first year.

The last rounds of the NFL draft are on Saturday, starting at 12 p.m. ET. It will be interesting to see what team finally calls Sanders's name, getting him on potentially a steep, steep discount. And to Payton's point, potentially a highly motivated-to-prove-you-wrong Sanders to boot.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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