Malik Nabers slams NFL teams over Shedeur Sanders NFL Draft fall: 'No way in hell he goes fifth round'

New York Giants wideout Malik Nabers was just as stunned as anybody watching Shedeur Sanders fall in the 2025 NFL Draft. Once thought to be a surefire first round pick, the former Colorado quarterback fell to the fifth round, taken No. 144 overall by the Cleveland Browns.

Five quarterbacks came off the board before Sanders heard his name called: Cam Ward (pick No. 1), Jaxson Dart (No. 25), Tyler Shough (No. 40), Jalen Milroe (No. 92) and Dillon Gabriel (No. 94). Nabers, whose team went with Dart in the first round, called out NFL teams during an appearance on “7pm in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony” for letting a player as talented as Sanders slip to the fifth round over the way he carries himself.

Melo & Malik Nabers were HOT Shedeur Sanders slipped to the 5th round of the NFL Draft 😬

Malik: "He was the talk of the top 2 QB's in his class. There's no way in hell he goes 5th round."

Melo: "This is an attack at Prime." pic.twitter.com/n01uj4F7YS

— 7PM in Brooklyn (@7PMinBrooklyn) May 1, 2025

“You don’t do something like that to somebody like that,” Nabers said. “You can’t knock his talent. I heard a lot of things about he takes unnecessary sacks. He had a bad o-line. He threw 70% with a bad o-line. Talk about his escaping the pocket. You can pull up plenty of clips of him escaping 3-4 tackles and throwing it down the field. Most of his receivers had sveen to eight touchdowns. He played with Travis Hunter, he won the Biletnikoff [Award.] Some things you just can’t knock.

‘We gotta stop making feelings with how people play linger. Yeah, he might have some things that he might say on camera off the field, that don’t have to do with how he plays football. We’re here to do one thing and that’s play football. Everybody got different personalities. You never gonna meet somebody that’s got the same personality anywhere. We all made differently. For them to judge on just the things that he says or how he carries himself — how he carries himself is all about how his dad raised him. We all know Deion. They were just doing that to show how they bigger than what he wanted to stand for. I understand that, but you don’t do that.”

Malik Nabers defends Shedeur Sanders amid heavy criticism

Since the draft came to a close, multiple reports have stated that Sanders’ handling of the pre-draft process contributed to his fall. According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, the 23-year-old “sandbagged” some interviews with teams at the NFL Scouting Combine. Others have mentioned that a meeting with Giants head coach Brian Daboll did not go well. Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason said earlier this week that multiple NFL owners ordered teams to take Sanders off their draft boards.

Still, the idea of Sanders hearing his name called on Day 3 of the draft seemed incomprehensible. But it happened, and now, Sanders will have to fight for his spot in Cleveland’s crowded quarterback room. But it never should have gotten to that point, Nabers said.

“He did what he did at Jackson State, brought a lot of people to Jackson State that never knew about Jackson State,” Nabers said. “Then went to Colorado where nobody was even looking at Colorado like that. They have all these people look at him play and do what he did and then do him like that? Like, come on bro. This boy was talked as a top two quarterback in his class. There’s no way in hell he goes fifth round.”