After a painful NFL draft weekend, Shedeur Sanders can nonetheless write his personal e-book

All of it performed out in public for Shedeur Sanders, each final little bit of disappointment and disrespect.

An NFL draft of anticipated celebration turned a weekend of ready, if not worrying. From a mean-spirited prank spinning throughout the web to a seemingly interminable delay in getting drafted — not just some picks after the mocks had predicted, however a number of days.

Together with all of it got here a comeuppance — correct or not, comprehensible or not, deserved or not. That is the NFL — the Not Honest League. No worth in complaining, it will not get you wherever.

And it is price noting, Sanders is not complaining.

“I am extraordinarily grateful for the chance,” Sanders mentioned of getting picked 144th total by the Cleveland Browns, a Saturday choice lengthy after the anticipated Thursday evening coronation. “I do not ever deal with the damaging and even take into consideration the damaging …

“I’ve simply received to show and present what I am able to,” Sanders continued. “What fuels me is my function in life and understanding the route that we’ll need to take. Understanding that I used to be capable of get a chance when lots of people did not need to give me a chance. So that is what I am actually grateful for.”

One purpose for the NFL’s lukewarm curiosity within the Colorado quarterback was, reportedly, that he mentioned too most of the mistaken issues in staff interviews.

A minimum of now he’s saying all the correct issues, as a result of how he received to the NFL actually does not matter — at the very least if he does not enable it to matter.

In the long run Sanders has the identical alternative to be the Browns quarterback of the longer term as he would have if they’d in some way picked him second total. Plenty of high picks flame out shortly. Plenty of late-rounders change into stars.

Sanders will compete with Kenny Pickett, who arrives after a season as a backup in Philadelphia, and 40-year-old veteran Joe Flacco. (“Flacco’s my age,” Sanders’ father and faculty coach, Deion, cracked in a single launched video, which could have been a contributing a part of the issue right here.) Then there’s fellow draftee Dillon Gabriel, coming off a stat-spinning faculty profession, most lately at Oregon.

Why did Cleveland draft Gabriel 94th total — bypassing Shedeur Sanders — solely to commerce up later to get Sanders as nicely? The transfer means that the Browns assume Gabriel is healthier, however the beginning job, for sure, is begging for one of many rookies to take it will definitely.

“We felt prefer it received to some extent the place [Sanders] was in all probability mispriced relative to the draft,” common supervisor Andrew Berry mentioned.

What precisely was Sanders’ “worth” relative to the draft? That was the enduring storyline of the weekend. The draft gurus liked Sanders, projecting him as excessive as No. 3 at numerous factors. Groups felt fairly in a different way.

Why the disconnect?

It is doubtless quite a lot of issues. He was good however not nice at Colorado. He took too many sacks. He wasn’t an elite athlete — actually not like his Corridor of Fame father.

Then there have been experiences of poor interviews with staff executives, concern over his dedication and the very fact he had solely performed for his dad, who himself made loads of daring public statements. Sanders handled the draft course of as if he was a surefire top-10 choose (bypassing the Senior Bowl, for instance) which is not how the NFL prefers issues.

Agree or not, that is how the enterprise works.

Finally Sanders discovered himself a multiday cultural touchpoint and eventual punch line. It got here full with Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of Atlanta defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, dialing up an NFL-specific contact quantity and cruelly pretending to be the New Orleans Saints. First, Jax Ulbrich advised Sanders that he was about to be drafted, however then he added, “You are going to have to attend a bit bit longer, man.”

“What does that imply?” Sanders mentioned in a video of the decision launched by his brother.

What does any of it imply?

Actually nothing.

Sanders shrugged off the prank simply as he shrugged off the slide — “It did not actually have an effect on me … everyone does infantile issues right here or there,” he mentioned.

Ulbrich later apologized on social media and Sanders took a name from him on Sunday. However irrespective of how a lot Sanders brushed it apart, how might that not have stung deeply within the second? (Sure, different picks have been pranked, however none after days in this type of media meat grinder.)

This could not have been the NFL entry Sanders anticipated — at his draft occasion he had pillows along with his model identify “Legendary” printed on them. He can nonetheless be that, although.

The draft is a present. The league is about work.

If something, Sanders received his first dose of robust love. If he wasn’t conscious of how arduous this was going to be, he ought to be now. If he wasn’t cognizant of how a lot work his sport wants, he ought to be now. If he did not notice how his solutions or actions may need turned some off, he ought to now.

His flaws had been dissected on nationwide tv for all to debate. It may be painful. Or it may be a painful blessing, as a result of a tough employee who is aware of what to work on could be a highly effective, highly effective pressure.

“I am blessed,” Sanders mentioned, and good on him for that. “I do know I’ve to wash up some issues in my sport. The primary factor is proving [Coach Kevin] Stefanski and Mr. Berry [are] proper about choosing me.”

From right here on out, that is all that issues. This was a tough chapter within the story of Shedeur Sanders, however the e-book is not but totally written.

And it’s Sanders who nonetheless holds the pen.