With the conclusion of the NFL Draft from Green Bay, Wis., one of the key stories of the weekend surrounded the slide of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders into the fifth round. While he was ultimately selected by the Cleveland Browns with the 144th pick, viewers observed that ESPN senior NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. was shocked by this outcome and delivered impassioned discourse about the situation. The commentaries went viral on social media with several users perceiving him as having outbursts about this predicament after ranking Sanders as the No. 1 quarterback in the NFL Draft.
In an episode of The Adam Schefter Podcast following the NFL Draft with Adam Schefter and Field Yates, Kiper was asked if the noise and criticism coming from the public bothered him at all during the weekend. Kiper revealed that he did not know about it and recalled ESPN vice president of production Seth Markman informing him that he was trending on X, formerly known as Twitter. Although he did not read any of what was said, he believes that it was not nice and reflected on his statements in the presentation.
“I said even on the Draft [broadcast], ‘Maybe he’ll go into the UFL or the CFL. Maybe he’ll be Kurt Warner… maybe Shedeur should do that to prove to these guys in the NFL he can play,’” Kiper explained. “I don’t know – I don’t know what’s going to happen there, but they said I was trending on Twitter over Shedeur. I don’t know if I was trending when he was in the third, fourth, fifth round.
ESPN senior NFL insider Adam Schefter, who broke news of transactions throughout the proceedings last week, informed Kiper that he always says, “You’re a trendsetter.” This remark led to laughter from the longtime senior NFL Draft analyst, who has been a presence on ESPN coverage of the event since 1984.
Opening night of the NFL Draft averaged 13.6 million viewers across ESPN, NFL Network, ABC, ESPN Deportes and other digital platforms, indicative of an 11% rise from the previous year. The second night of the event averaged 7.3 million viewers, finishing as the second most-watched Day 2 of the NFL Draft on record and up 40% from the previous year.
In addition to Kiper’s work surrounding the NFL Draft, he previously hosted a weekend program on ESPN Radio alongside Dari Nowkhah for 14 years. Furthermore, he contributes to studio programming on the network such as SportsCenter and NFL Live while also co-hosting the First Draft podcast. Kiper is a graduate of Essex Community College and founded Draft Publications, Inc. while attending school, which is now known as Mel Kiper Enterprises, Inc.
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