Merril Hoge shares bleak outlook for what Shedeur Sanders will be as NFL QB
from Zac Wassink, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
Via multiple stories published in the days leading up to the 2025 draft, unnamed NFL coaches and executives shared brutal evaluations of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and ripped his personality.
During a Wednesday appearance on Pittsburgh sports radio station WDVE, retired player and current NFL analyst Merril Hoge explained why he thinks Sanders will flop at the highest level.
“He can’t handle the expectations that are coming his way,” Hoge said, as shared by Ross McCorkle of Steelers Depot. “He’s gonna be an epic failure, and he is gonna set your organization back another two or three years.”
Criticisms of Sanders’ athleticism and passing mechanics popped up long before one NFC coordinator recently compared the polarizing prospect to 2024 fifth-round draft choice Spencer Rattler while speaking with Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. That coordinator would “be surprised if [Sanders] was a really good starter” in the NFL, while an NFC quarterbacks coach joked with Breer that Sanders would “be a sixth-round pick” if he weren’t the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders.
“The best way to sum him up is he’s a really good college quarterback,” Hoge added. “His accuracy is good. His processing is good. And when I say good, I use a scale from one to 10. So good is around five. …Those are the two most important aspects of transitioning to the National Football League, and then you build from there. Anticipation, pocket awareness and then we start building. But those two things, if you’re a five, you’re not a first-rounder. You’re not a franchise guy.”
Hoge accurately predicted ahead of the 2014 draft that quarterback Johnny Manziel would be an NFL bust. More recently, Hoge generated headlines in early 2024 when he said the Washington Commanders should make Jayden Daniels the draft’s second pick over Drake Maye. Daniels ultimately won the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award en route to guiding his club to the NFC Championship Game.
“Let’s go to the IQ level,” Hoge said while comparing Sanders to quarterbacks taken with high picks in previous drafts. “He ain’t even close. He ain’t even in the ballpark.”
Assuming Hoge and others are accurate in their assessments, it seems the team that ends the draft with Sanders should plan on developing him as a backup for as long as possible to get him ready to face pro defenses in meaningful games.