When it comes to QB Shedeur Sanders, it seems like everybody either loves him as a prospect or hates him. The discourse surrounding him as a prospect seems to be at both extremes and it’s rare to find somebody who just likes him. Today is no different with former Steelers RB Merril Hoge coming in with some spicy takes on Sanders.
“The best way to sum him up is he’s a really good college quarterback,” Hoge said via 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann. “His accuracy is good. His processing is good. And when I say good, I use a scale from one to 10, okay? So good is around five. So if you’re a five in college, okay? 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.”
Mike Tomlin surprisingly went into detail on Sanders during the Steelers’ pre-draft press conference on Tuesday. He didn’t say much about his actual on-field traits, focusing on his intangibles instead. He mentioned Sanders’ competitive spirit and his toughness.
The consensus, even among those who love Sanders as a prospect, is that he doesn’t have elite arm talent or athleticism. Usually first-round prospects will have one of those traits, if not both. But those are far from the other critical factors in evaluating a quarterback. There are dozens of other traits that can make or break their success at the next level.
“Let’s go to the IQ level,” Hoge said while talking about the top QBs in recent drafts like C.J. Stroud and Jayden Daniels. “He ain’t even close. He ain’t even in the ballpark.”
Sanders worked with OC Pat Shurmur over the last two years at Colorado. With Shurmur a former NFL OC, Sanders would have been exposed to a lot of NFL concepts. Respected draft analysts like Dane Brugler also knocked some of his physical traits but specifically praised his “smart and savvy decision-making process.”
Hoge really drilled home the point that Sanders threw a lot of bubble-screen concepts with a low degree of difficulty. It’s possible Colorado was just protecting him from a poor offensive line. Whatever slant you want to put on it, Sanders did throw 33.8 percent of his passes at or behind the line of scrimmage. That obviously played a role in his conference-high completion rate of 74 percent.
To sum it up, Hoge really laid into Sanders as a prospect.
“He can’t handle the expectations that are coming his way. He’s gonna be an epic failure and he is gonna set your organization back another two or three years,” he said.
While bashing Sanders, Hoge also let on that he is higher on at least two other QB prospects. He was asked specifically about Jaxson Dart.
“I would take him over Shedeur,” Hoge said.
He also seems to indicate he likes Syracuse QB Kyle McCord better than Sanders. The Steelers held pre-draft visits with all three.
Again, I think there is much more nuance to Sanders than thinking he is a slam dunk first-round success and basically writing him off as a nobody as Hoge did here. I personally think there is something to work with, and the Steelers do seem to like him.
We will see who they come away with over the next few days. If it’s Sanders, don’t expect a positive reaction from Hoge.
