The 2025 NFL Draft was a bizarre spectacle.
For five rounds, the story wasn't about the players who were drafted. It was about who wasn't drafted -- quarterback Shedeur Sanders. He was the No. 1 player ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr.'s big board and fell to Round 5 before getting picked by the Cleveland Browns. While Sanders was waiting, he cruelly got prank called by someone pretending to be an NFL general manager.
After the draft, 49ers general manager John Lynch offered Sanders some words of encouragement.
"There's a lot of time and we're all doing our work, but then you're sitting up there and this was a story that kind of was prevalent," Lynch said. "I think more than anything, just empathy, that's tough for a young man. But I know that he's a competitor. I know that he's got his opportunity now and I think we tell people all the time, it's not when you go, it's not where you go, it's what you do with that opportunity.
"He's got that opportunity in Cleveland and I'm excited for him. I remember seeing him down at Jackson State, his true freshman year, and really enjoying getting to know the kid. A lot of things are said about him, but now he gets to go prove that he's worthy of that pick by the Browns and we wish him nothing but the best."
What a classy thing for Lynch to say.
Clearly, the 49ers weren't interested in Sanders even though they were in the market for a quarterback -- they drafted Kurtis Rourke in Round 7. Maybe they feel that some of the things that have been said about Sanders -- he's entitled, for instance -- are true.
Or maybe they just don't want the media circus that follows him around.
Either way, the 49ers have their reasons. They don't need to say them publicly.
