Shedeur Sanders early NFL Draft comp makes ESPN mock draft even more absurd

While ESPN's Matt Miller had the Las Vegas Raiders trading up from No. 8 to No. 2 in a deal with the Carolina Panthers to select then Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders in his latest 2025 NFL mock draft, Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network compares Sanders favorably to Geno Smith. Before you laugh and fall out of your seat uncontrollably, the Smith comp is actually a compliment.

Before reinventing himself as a Pro Bowl passer with the Seattle Seahawks after initially bombing as a high second-round pick by the New York Jets out of college, Smith was a damn good passer playing for Dana Holgorsen's West Virginia Mountaineers. He was an exceptional college player and a really fun one to watch. Smith needed to go to the right place to have success. The same applies to Sanders.

We are talking about the son of the greatest cover cornerback in NFL history in Colorado head coach Deion Sanders. His son has elite traits in terms of throwing motion, touch on his passes, competitiveness and situational awareness. Unfortunately, he is slightly undersized, holds onto the ball too long and hasn't won enough games at the Power Four level to merit being higher than QB3.

I would take Georgia's Carson Beck and Texas' Quinn Ewers over him if I was drafting a quarterback.

Daniel Jeremiah's Shedeur Sanders comp ruins Matt Miller's mock draft

If the Raiders stayed at No. 8 and took Sanders in this way-too-early NFL mock draft bonanza we seem to be having, I would be more than cool with it. The No. 8 overall pick is very much in QB3 range. The Raiders are the NFL's rebel franchise and may need a quarterback next year if either Gardner Minshew II or Aidan O'Connell don't work out. I may even have Sanders as QB2 if Ewers proves brittle.

However, you have to do a better job of reading the draft board. Sanders isn't going top two unless Colorado goes something like 8-4 and he is a Heisman Trophy finalist out of the reconfigured Big 12. It would be so cool for that to happen, you know, to prove all of his doubters wrong, but I was born at night, and not last night. Ewers has the best arm since Matthew Stafford. Beck has Joe Burrow poise.

And even if the Smith comp to Sanders is both accurate and favorable, not everybody is going to see it as such. For Sanders to even be a first-round lock like his father is simply incredible. He has the mechanics, the pedigree and the competitiveness to at least have a shot at being the face of an NFL franchise. However, we have to see if he is anything more than Cam Ward with a much better PR staff.

For the time being, Sanders is QB3 and should come off the board in the top-eight to top-12 range.