If that fan lawsuit over Shedeur Sanders' draft-day slide ever gains traction, Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson believes he has information that could make him a key witness, wrote Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
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Speaking on the Roggin and Rodney Show, Dickerson claimed that NFL teams were specifically told not to draft Sanders.
"I tell you this much, what I heard from someone that's in the NFL, that the NFL told [teams] don't draft him, do not draft him," Dickerson said, via Florio and several other outlets. "We're going to make an example out of him. And this came from a very good source, a very good source."
According to Dickerson, the Browns only ended up drafting Sanders because of outside pressure.
"I won't say who — somebody called the Cleveland Browns and said, 'Don't do that, draft him,'" he said. "Because they weren't going to draft him, either. They were forced into drafting him, because somebody made a call to them."
Dickerson added that the original plan was for Sanders to go undrafted as a message to the rest of the league.
"He was not gonna get drafted, to basically show you this is what happens when you do this," he said.
The suggestion is dramatic — and at first glance, implausible. But NFL history has seen its share of collusion rulings, including one in which an arbitrator determined the league's Management Council had discouraged teams from offering fully-guaranteed contracts after the Browns gave Deshaun Watson one in 2022.
Sanders' draft-day fall was explained, at least publicly, as a reaction to his approach to the pre-draft process. He treated it more like being recruited than being interviewed, reportedly resisting the notion that attending endless workouts and meetings was some kind of "honor and privilege."
If his stance had been validated by a top selection, others might have followed suit.
The NFL, built on order and power dynamics, has no appetite for that. Colin Kaepernick's absence from the league has long served as one example. Sanders' unexpected slide could be another, if Dickerson's account proves true.
At minimum, Dickerson's claim raises the question of whether Sanders' draft fall was a coincidence or a consequence.
