Join the huddle. Sign up here for Ravens updates in your inbox.

After ESPN reported earlier this month that the Ravens were planning to draft Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round in April, only to be told the Colorado star didn’t want to join a team with an established quarterback like Lamar Jackson, both sides made clear that they’d already moved on.

Head coach John Harbaugh, asked about the Ravens’ interest in Sanders, said last week that it’s team policy to not discuss the draft-room decision-making process. Sanders, now a third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, told local reporters that he’s “focused on the now.” He added: “I don’t really talk about anything in the past and whatever happened in the past, it is what it is.”

Sanders’ dad, NFL legend and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, however, was more than happy to weigh in.

In an appearance on the “New Heights” podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, Sanders said he’s “cool” with Ravens executive vice president Ozzie Newsome, who signed him to a deal at the end of his Hall of Fame career. But he bristled at the criticism of Shedeur, who was considered a Day 1 or Day 2 prospect ahead of the draft but fell to the fifth round.

“I don’t want to say how it went,” the elder Sanders said of the Ravens’ call to Shedeur, “but how in the world can somebody fault him for saying or thinking, ‘Why in the world would I go back up Lamar for 10 more years?’ Who comes in with that mindset?”

Sanders said he was skeptical of the development his son would get in the NFL.

“By the time you get to the NFL, they expect you to know what you need to do and to do it, or somebody else going to get in there and do it,” he said. “Now they teach you the playbook, but development and teaching you how to route folks up and how to block and hold that point? Man, please. Ain’t nobody taught you that.”

Jason Kelce, a seven-time Pro Bowl center with the Philadelphia Eagles who retired in 2024, told Sanders that it was “much better for me in my career to get an opportunity to go and play right away, there ain’t no question. I wouldn’t have changed that for a second, no matter what I’m going to learn or develop anywhere else.”

Sanders agreed. “I’ve never sat on the bench and said, ‘Well, I learned a lot today.’ … Who learns sitting on the bench? Like, who does that?”

The Ravens ultimately used the 141st overall pick on Alabama A&M offensive tackle Carson Vinson.