NFL agent breaks down Trump’s impact in Shedeur Sanders saga
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After Shedeur Sanders fell out of the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday, President Donald Trump plunged the situation into the political realm on Friday afternoon.
Trump’s Truth Social post calling NFL owners “stupid” for not drafting Sanders and calling for the quarterback to be “picked IMMEDIATELY” became one of the most unexpected moments of an unprecedented draft slide.
Sanders was ultimately not picked “IMMEDIATELY” as Trump ordered, as the quarter slipped out of the second and third rounds later on Friday night. Sanders did not end up getting taken until the fifth round on Saturday, with the 144th pick by the Cleveland Browns.
Still, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt took the liberty of crediting Trump’s post for Sanders getting picked at all.
“All I will say is the president put out a statement and a few rounds later he was drafted. So, I think the facts speak for themselves now,” Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
However, famed NFL agent Leigh Steinberg is not so quick to credit Trump for helping Sander get taken.
“I would want to be, in a very divided country where there’s extreme opinions on both sides of the spectrum, as a-political as possible,” Steinberg told Fox News Digital about what his reaction would be if Trump called for one of his clients to be drafted.
Steinberg, who has represented a record-breaking eight players taken with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft, does not believe that Trump’s post had a big impact on the outcome of Sanders’ draft.
“I don’t think so because teams are tightly focused in their war rooms across the country, and they know who they want, and I don’t see a team downgrading him because of the involvement of a political figure,” Steinberg said.
Still, Steinberg believes that Trump’s weighing in heightened the scope of the situation in terms of publicity.
“It certainly did that because it involved the whole segment of the public that follows the president but might not have otherwise conscious of what was going on,” Steinberg said.
Additionally, with added attention may come an unexpected benefit to Sanders, even if it did not help his draft stock.
Steinberg said that he believes that Trump’s praise of the quarterback will ultimately enhance Sanders’ reputational value and his marketability as an NFL pro going forward, now that he finally has a team.
Sanders was once projected to contend for the top overall pick in the draft and potentially be presumed as a team’s starter right away.
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However, reports of Sanders interviewing poorly with teams and rumored character concerns emerged in the months and weeks leading up to the draft, and he ultimately suffered an unprecedented slide to the fifth round.
Steinberg himself was surprised, as he expected Sanders to be picked in the second round. The agent, who has represented athletes for more than 50 years, says Sanders’ draft slide was the most surprising draft slide that he has ever seen.
“It’s being played out by a national audience, and it distorts time because it seems like endless and the player’s being rejected and rejected and rejected, and it’s like a death by a thousand cuts,” Steinberg said. “This is as precipitous a fall as I’ve seen in my 51 years.”
As a veteran agent with a history of getting quarterbacks drafted high, Steinberg believes there are certain things that Sanders could have done to help his draft stock in 2025.
For one, Steinberg says the quarterback could have benefited from having an agent of his own, as Sanders opted to represent himself with his father and former college coach Deion Sanders.
Had the family opted to go with an agent instead, then Steinberg expects they would have run an interview simulation with an NFL general manager before the NFL combine, as Steinberg did with many of his clients in the past.
“We bring in a general manager who prepares a player for those one-on-one visits at the combine,” Steinberg said.
“The players are prepare for whatever questions are to be asked and the player advances the proper attitude, which is they need to be self-confident but not arrogant.”
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Steinberg also says he would tell a quarterback client to scale back on social media activity and attempt to gain publicity if he felt it had become too much, if he had such a client.
“Any sense that it would be a circus-like atmosphere for the team that drafted him would not be something they’d want for their culture,” Steinberg said.
“Deion Sanders is great, but if the way in which they used social media raised concerns that this would not be a low-key team player, humble player entering a team, that could have influenced someone.”
Still, Steinberg believes Sanders is still equipped to have a successful NFL career, and believes he can contend for the team’s starting quarterback position as soon as his rookie year.
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