As the hours flew by on Day 3 of the 2025 NFL Draft and Colorado quarterback and Johnny Unitas Award winner Shedeur Sanders remained undrafted, Sharpe, 56, recorded an episode with co-host Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson from Green Bay, Wisconsin on Thursday, April 24.
It was their first “Nightcap” episode since accusations by an OnlyFans model against Sharpe forced Unc off the ESPN airwaves.
As the fifth round rolled on and people questioned if Shedeur would even be drafted, Cleveland swooped in with the 144th pick of that round a snagged its quarterback of the future. Ending this nightmare of a draft for the Sanders family.
Unc Returns To The Airwaves With Nightcap” Podcast Live From NFL Draft
The former NFL stars could understand how Shedeur might fall out of the first round. Stranger things have happened. But for the talented signal-caller and son of Hall of Fame legend Deion Sanders to be left hanging into the fifth round, was unfathomable for the award-winning podcasters.
Sharpe said, “In almost 40 years (of watching drafts) I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Johnson immediately chimed in, saying, “Unc I’ve never seen nothing like this, myself. Obviously, I only played a short time, but I been around long enough to know. Obviously the 11-12 years I did play and all the time I was retired and enjoying the game and watching it from afar and understanding how good players are regardless of what the scouts may say. The eye in the sky doesn’t lie. I watched Shedeur play from HS to college at Jackson State to what he was able to do at Colorado.”
Chad “Ochocinco” Says Shedeur Draft Drop Is A Lesson: “You’re Never Bigger Than The Program”
Johnson kept it real and did admit that the entire process has been a message that, “you’re never bigger than the program, no matter who you are,” the former Cincinnati Bengals All-Pro receiver said. They will always remind you at any given time, if at any point you think you’re bigger than the program. That’s all we are seeing right now.
“There’s something I think Prime might have said, where he said something similar to what Archie Manning said when it comes to Eli Manning. Same thing. No different.”
There were plenty of stories about Deion possibly attempting to interfere with the draft process and clips of Sanders saying that he wouldn’t allow Shedeur to go to certain teams who didn’t have a system in place. It was indeed bold talk.
Chad Johnson Suggests Sanders’ Family Unapologetic Blackness Offends White Owners
Then Johnson decided to partake in the racial optics of the situation, citing a passage he received from someone on Instagram, explaining Shedeur’s draft downfall.
“Listen to something that was sent to me on Instagram, Ocho said to his co-hosts before reading.
“What we’re witnessing once again is the machinery of a system that never quite knows what to do with the free black man. Much less in a free Black family. The NFL with all its pageantry and power finds itself uncomfortable even threatened when the likes of the Sanders family walk into the room not asking for a seat at the table but daring to bring their own.
Deion, Shedeur, this family has refused to shrink to fit the confines laid out for them. So the machine does what it has always done. It seeks to diminish, distort to remind them and us that there’s still a place for Black folk and it’s not at the head of the table. The tragedy is not in their refusal to bow, but in the nation’s fear of Black excellence unchanged.”
Shedeur Sanders Gets Drafted To Cleveland
Shedeur’s long wait is over. It’s not like he has stiff competition in Cleveland for QB. It’s a full room with old man Joe Flacco and 2025 third-round pick Dillon Gabriel and journeyman Kenny Pickett. The bigger story becomes what does Shedeur do with the opportunity that Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski has given him.
NFL Network’s coverage team explained the bright side of this situation.
“There’s no one there that he can’t compete against. This distill an opportunity for him to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. And it’s the right style of offense. He’s going to hate where he went but it’s a good spot.”
Now the real work starts.
