One of the hottest topics of conversation both during and after the 2025 NFL draft was the Las Vegas Raiders not drafting Shedeur Sanders.
Sanders and the Raiders were connected for quite some time, mostly because of his relationship with owners Mark Davis and Tom Brady. And, even after the trade for Geno Smith, there was some speculation that Las Vegas could still take the Colorado legend, who ultimately landed with the Cleveland Browns.
Instead, the Raiders passed on Sanders several times over the course of the three-day event and didn't opt to take a quarterback until late when they drafted both Tommy Mellott and Cam Miller in the sixth round.
One of the most famous Raiders fans out there, Ice Cube, recently weighed in on the situation involving Las Vegas and Sanders during an appearance on Skip Bayless' show.
Ice Cube admitted that while he did want the Raiders to draft Sanders, he totally gets why the team avoided the polarizing quarterback.
“It did bother me," Ice Cube admitted. "I wanted him, but I understand. I can see from a coach’s point of view why not to take him, because you take him, you don’t have a good season or two, Deion’s getting your job. I think a lot of coaches were like ‘Nah, I don’t want to draft my replacement.'”
“I think that might have been the biggest reason why he slipped. It wasn’t because of how he plays on the field. It was probably because they was scared to lose they job to Deion Sanders," Ice Cube added.
It's funny Cube was talking about this with Bayless, who has been obsessed with the unproven notion that Brady was the one who told the Raiders not to draft Sanders — but we digress.
We tend to disagree with Ice Cube's assessment here. As it pertains to the Raiders, we can't imagine that a Super Bowl-winning head coach like Pete Carroll would concern himself with possibly being replaced by Deion Sanders.
We truly believe teams were turned off by Sanders during the pre-draft process and probably didn't have him as highly ranked as the media did, which wouldn't be anything new.
Adding to that, it was plainly obvious that Sanders' mere presence on a roster was going to be a huge distraction, so that didn't help his cause, either.
But what's past is past and now it's up to Sanders to prove everyone wrong, including the Raiders.
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