Even before the New York Giants had the chance to trade up and draft Shedeur Sanders in the 2025 NFL Draft, reports emerged that he didn’t impress the team in his interview with former head coach Brian Daboll and was also criticized for coming in unprepared. New York eventually passed on the Colorado product. Fast forward to now, and former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel has voiced his frustration over that decision.

“That just sounds crazy in itself,” the 2x Super Bowl champ said this week. “He got called out, didn’t like it, and Brian Daboll didn’t like that he didn’t like getting called out. It’s so petty and so immature that the narrative they tried to control on Shedeur Sanders. It’s always somebody who just makes bad decisions, man. That’s just my opinion.”

The Giants invited Shedeur Sanders for a top-30 visit, and during one of his pre-draft visits, the quarterback was asked to prepare for a play installation package. Shedeur, meanwhile, reportedly went unprepared, leaving a bad impression on Brian Daboll and the Giants. The former Giants head coach didn’t appreciate it, and the interview didn’t go very well.

“The friction centered on some frustration between the two regarding Sanders’ preparation of an install package,” said the NFL draft expert, Todd McShay, ahead of the 2025 draft. “It seems the interview process as a whole — beginning in Indianapolis, as I reported a few days after the Combine — has negatively affected the leaguewide perception of Sanders during the lead-up to this year’s draft.

Then, during an episode of his The McShay Show, the draft expert elaborated: “Shedeur’s not in play at No. 3; Shedeur’s not in play with the New York Giants [at all] as far as I’m told. Shedeur didn’t have a great interview with Brian Daboll in a private visit. An install package came in, but the preparation wasn’t there for it. [Shedeur] got called out on it, didn’t like that. Brian didn’t appreciate him not liking it. … The interviews did not go well.

“Not disrespectful, nothing harsh, just felt like…the phrase I’ve been using that aptly describes it — we didn’t get the sense that Shedeur cared all that much about what we thought of him.”

Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer had also reported that Sanders was allegedly pissed after the Giants and Daboll called him out on his errors.

“The Giants one, they give players an install, and there are mistakes intentionally put in the install,” Breer said via 98.5 The Sports Hub. “He didn’t catch them and got called on it, and it didn’t go well after that. He was pissed that they did that to him.”

Before the draft, Shedeur also admitted that during his top 30 visits, he used to meet with team executives and ask as many questions as the executives asked him. However, the teams didn’t like his approach and overall personality, as he later admitted, “Some get offended, some like it, some don’t. [I] make some people uncomfortable, some people invite that.”

Sanders was previously predicted to be the third overall pick for the Giants and one of the top-ranked quarterbacks ahead of the 2025 draft. He was the fifth overall prospect on Mil Kiper’s Big Board, and many other analysts, including Jordan Reid and Matt Miller of ESPN, ranked him at #19.

Before he visited with the Giants, Sanders also had visits with the Cleveland Browns, who at that time had the No. 2 pick, and the Pittsburgh Steelers (No. 21). Fast forward to the 2025 Draft, the Giants moved up nine spots by trading the No. 34 pick, No.99 pick, and a third-round selection in 2026 to the Houston Texans for Jaxson Dart.

But now, Samuel has called out the Giants for judging Shedeur Sanders’ character based on his reportedly coming unprepared for the pre-draft visit.

“They (Giants) could be right,” he added. “They could be clearly right. They gave him a play installation package, and Shedeur Sanders screwed it up. But, at the same time, how much does that really affect who that person is as a quarterback?”

That said, Sanders is now heading to his second NFL season with the Browns, while competing against Deshaun Watson for the starting role. As for the Giants, John Harbaugh replaced Daboll and will develop Jaxson Dart. The two teams will now face each other in Week 15 of the 2026 season at MetLife Stadium.