Two fanbases just got called out. On Nightcap, Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe and Bengals’ icon Ocho didn’t bother with sugarcoating. They straight-up questioned why the Steelers and the Saints don’t have the most important position in football figured out. The Steelers are relying on a 41-year-old, and the Saints on Tyler Shough. And come on, we all know he’s not a franchise QB. Sharpe pinned down exactly what the problem was.

They think it all came down to this: why did they not pick Shedeur Sanders? “He was a top-three pick in the first round. We all knew that. If you watch the game of football, if you look at the quarterbacks that went before Shedeur, I mean, hello. The only one who’s looked decent this preseason plays in New York. Outside of that, the Saints still don’t have a quarterback. The Steelers still don’t have a quarterback,” he said. That was an honest analysis.

Sharpe’s jab that the Saints “still don’t have a QB” after drafting ninth cuts deep because of what they actually did with that pick. Instead of a Round 1 quarterback, New Orleans went O-line. They ended up taking LT Kelvin Banks Jr. at No. 9, then doubled back for QB Tyler Shough at No. 40. It’s the textbook “protect now, develop later” strategy, but it leaves that franchise QB box unchecked.

Context matters here. Derek Carr is no more in the building, and while 2024 wasn’t a disaster, it wasn’t the answer either: 2,145 yards, 15 TDs, 5 picks in 10 games. Efficient? Sure, but not durable, and Shough is not the answer. So if you’re a Saints fan hearing Sharpe’s shot, what you’re really hearing is this: sure, you got a solid left tackle and a developmental QB, but did you actually solve the quarterback problem right now? Moreover, the Steelers weren’t off the hook either.

The pushback is sitting right there in black and white: Aaron Rodgers signed a one-year deal in June and has made it pretty clear 2025 is probably his last ride. You can argue about the upside of a 41-year-old, sure, but what you can’t argue is whether the Steelers have a quarterback. If Sharpe’s point is really about long-term stability, that’s a different debate.

But all that criticism for not drafting Shedeur earlier? Well, there might have been a reason behind that.

The league warned teams not to sign Shedeur Sanders!

Recently, Hall of Fame RB Eric Dickerson claimed that he heard directly from an NFL source that teams were told to stay away from Shedeur Sanders. Yeah, this is a collusion allegation. It’s that big. So, if you’re wondering why the Saints and the Steelers ended up with that QB situation? This might be the answer.

And of course, Shannon Sharpe used his own sources to check just how true this allegation was. Turns out, Eric wasn’t lying. “The NFL told teams, ‘Do not draft him.’ ‘We’re going to make an example out of him,’ they said. But apparently, Shedeur had fallen much further than anticipated with the Browns and forced them to take him as the 144th overall pick. They weren’t going to draft him either; someone forced them into drafting him,” he said.

That adds another pinch of drama to the Shedeur Sanders saga. Doubts about Shedeur have always circled. Whether it was his personality, the Coach Prime connection, or the way he leans into the spotlight. But hinting that the league itself nudged teams away from him? That takes the debate from personality quirks to conspiracy territory.

And this raises a bigger concern about the politics of this league. “The NFL is a business,” he said. “Can you do whatever your position is? If you’re a quarterback, can you throw? If you’re a DB, can you break on the ball? I don’t care about all that other stuff,” he added. The former Broncos star even connected it back to 2014 and Michael Sam’s case. He pointed out that while many pinned Sam’s slide on his sexuality, the league’s bottom line has always been the same: if you produce, you stick.

Whether it was about the NFL warning teams not to draft him (still unlikely) or something else, there is something that went on behind the scenes.