After spending two and a half days demanding that Shedeur Sanders be drafted, you’ll think that ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. will be happy when he gets drafted.
But that’s not the case.
There was no comfort in using the 144th overall pick to take the chance to the youngster with Kuiper screaming at the camera and his fellow hosts in unlimited rage that Chedure Sanders fell from the first four rounds.
Instead, he saved his most vitrilic Tirad for the end when he called “ignorance” about blowing up the NFL and drafting a quarterback.
Kuiper asked the co-host Louis Riddick, who co-hosted why Sanders was not taken previously.
“This isn’t like, ‘Can you play a position?’ This is, “Do you want you to play the position for us?” Riddick tried to explain.
“Why don’t they?” Kuiper fought back.
“That’s another discussion we’ve had in many different ways for weeks and months.”
Kuiper said, “Isn’t he one of the toughest quarterbacks you’ve ever seen?”
Ray Davis intervened and tried to provide a voice of reason.
“That’s the key, Mel. It doesn’t make a value judgement as to who passed, who is right or wrong. They did,” Davis said. “You may have to deal with them whether you like them, whether you don’t like them, whether they’re fair or whether they’re unfair.”
Rece added that adversity was put in a good position to prove Sanders to the league. This argument did nothing to soften Kuiper. Kuiper doubled by insisting that the league had no way of evaluating quarterbacks.
“The NFL has been ignorant about quarterback ratings for 50 years!” Kuiper replied. “I’m ignorant! They don’t know what they’re doing in terms of evaluating quarterbacks. There’s evidence of that!”
Kipper said, “The NFL gets it, and they know everything. No, they don’t!”
It is important to note that Kiper himself has made some mistakes in quarterback ratings over the years.
In 2010, Kiper promised to retire if Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen did not make a successful NFL career. Spoiler alert: He didn’t. In 2007, Kiper compared infamous draft bust Jamarcus Russell to John Elway, saying he could become a top-five quarterback. Russell missed the league in a very short time.
Kiper also said Ricky Stange has the best career among QBs in the 2011 draft class. That didn’t happen either.
