Shedeur Sanders unforeseen fall is the biggest story of the 2025 NFL Draft. One considered a consensus top-10 pick, Sanders was not taken in the first three rounds of the draft while several other quarterbacks were taken.
There were reports about teams not being impressed with Sanders after meeting him but nobody expected the fall to last thing long. After all, there have been some truly bewildering quarterbacks taken with Sanders still on the board. The Cleveland Browns drafting Oregon's Dillon Gabriel still doesn't make any sense.
Somehow, the five-foot-nine Gabriel doesn't have the strangest background of the quarterbacks taken ahead of Sanders. That belongs to New Orleans Saints QB Tyler Shough, who was drafted with the No. 40 pick as one of the oldest prospects in the draft. Shough is such an old prospect that he backed up LA Chargers' QB Justin Herbert at Oregon.
No, we aren't kidding.
Look at the year https://t.co/rMlVSa4kkW
— Hale FC (@awwhalenawl) April 26, 2025
Tyler Shough was Justin Herbert's backup seven years before being drafted ahead of Shedeur Sanders
Shough graduated high school in 2018 and joined the Oregon Ducks' quarterback room in Justin Herbert's junior sesion. The new Saints quarterback appeared in three games his freshman season (without attempting a pass) before ultimately redshirting.
Shough then saw five games of backup action as a redshirt freshman in Herbert's senior year. After Herbert was drafted in 2020, Shough was promoted to starting quarterback, where he would play seven games in the COVID-shortened season.
This ended Shough's Oregon tenure as he then transferred to Texas Tech, where he would spend the next three seasons and play 15 total games.
Multiple season-ending injuries at Texas Tech granted Shough more years of eligibility, which coupled with the COVID year of eligibility, allowed him to play seven total years of college ball. The seventh year was spent at Louisville, where he put together his only full season as a starter en route to getting drafted.
In that same timeframe, Justin Herbert has started two playoff games for the Chargers, has won Offensive Rookie of the Year, is a Pro Bowler and has thrown for over 21,000 yards with 137 passing touchdowns.
The Saints passed on arguably the second-most talented quarterback in the draft in favor of someone who once backed up an NFL quarterback who has 79 career starts in the league under his belt. New Orleans intentionally drafted a quarterback who will be entering his age 30 season when his four-year rookie contract is over.
Ironically enough, Sanders will be 27 after his four-year rookie contract, which is the same age Shough will be for most of the 2025 season.
Maybe Sanders just has to find a way to go back to school and play another four years. It seemed to work for Shough.