Steelers Now
To say the least, former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Merril Hoge is not a fan of Shedeur Sanders. Hoge, who correctly predicted that Johnny Manziel was going to be a bust, thinks Sanders is going to be an epic failure in the NFL.
Hoge said on WDVE last week that Sanders is not in the same stratosphere as young QBs C.J. Stroud, Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow. NFL teams agreed with Hoge’s evaluation, as the former Colorado quarterback dropped to the fifth round in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Cleveland Browns selected Sanders at pick 144.
“That’s the skill set you’re looking for,” Hoge said. “He ain’t even close, he ain’t even in the ballpark. … There’s some toughness to him I like, but how he moves, he ain’t going to put fear in anybody.”
Hoge thinks Colorado’s offense relied on bubble screens too much.
“Nobody threw more bubble screens than Shedeur Sanders when it mattered,” Hoge said.
Hoge just doesn’t think Sanders’ play will translate to the NFL.
“In the college environment, it can be hard to translate a kid to where he’s going to play, so you have to look deeper into it, you have to find things that simulate the NFL,” Hoge said. “You’re not going to throw 50% of your bubble screens and survive in the NFL, you can do that in college — they’ll sit there [at Colorado] and say their offensive line was bad and so that’s why we did those type of things — but if your quarterback is good, you can run everything. You don’t just have to run a bubble screen.”
Character concerns are another issue with Sanders. The New York Giants’ Brian Daboll was reportedly one coach who had negative experience with him in the pre-draft interviews.
“Shedeur didn’t have a great interview with Brian Daboll in a private visit,” Todd McShay of The Ringer said. “An install package came in. Preparation wasn’t there for it. [He] got called out on it. Didn’t like that. Brian didn’t appreciate him not liking it.”
An unnamed coach even told NFL Media that his interview with Sanders was “the worst formal interview I’ve ever been in in my life.
College football analyst Ross Tucker shared a story about Sanders skipping the production meeting ahead of Colorado vs. Colorado State this past season.
“We weren’t really given a reason but we did not talk to Shedeur at the production meetings, which as you know, starting quarterback, especially high profile player like that, very unusual. I walk out of the hotel and there’s a pickup truck in front of the hotel and Shedeur is just sitting in the back of the pickup truck,” Tucker said on the Dan Patrick Show.
“It just made me wonder, Dan, people asked me, NFL people asked me after that game, ‘what did you think of Shedeur?’ And I said, ‘I didn’t get to talk to him.’ Maybe he’s the greatest kid ever, maybe he’s a bad kid. I don’t...
