Behind the ESPN Draft clash over Shedeur Sanders: Rece Davis clears the air
ESPN reporter Rece Davis addressed rumors of tension with colleague Mel Kiper Jr. after a heated on-air exchange on draft day.
Everyone and their dog has an opinion on former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and his unexpected slide to the fifth round in the 2025 NFL Draft. During the draft itself, it was the ESPN analysts getting into a heated discussion about the young player.
Do Rece Davis and Mel Kiper have beef?
Mel Kiper and Rece Davis got into a debate over Sanders and his surprising draft selection in the fifth round. Kiper passionately defended Sanders and criticized NFL teams for overlooking a talented player. Meanwhile, Davis and analyst Louis Riddick implied that Sanders’ drop likely stemmed from concerns that had nothing to do with his talent.
Kiper called Sanders “one of the toughest quarterbacks you’ve ever seen” and called the NFL “clueless” for five decades. Davis’ response that the “Draft has spoken” and the whole exchange caused questions about whether there was some animosity between Davis and Kiper.
Mel Kiper Jr. goes on another Shedeur Sanders rant after the Cleveland Browns select Sanders at pick No. 144.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 26, 2025
"Deion's gonna stay out of it... Deion's not gonna say anything! Deion's gonna coach Colorado! A lot of this stuff just made no sense to me!" #NFLDraft #NFL pic.twitter.com/iKCF6d9mmF
Davis addressed the rumors of tension during an appearance on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich”, saying he has no issues with his colleague whatsoever. He even praised Kiper for his impact on the popularity of the draft.
“And Mel’s job is to make his rankings of the players and defend them,” Davis said. “And I didn’t mind him disagreeing, and I don’t mind him saying anything he wanted to say when we’re there. But I thought that, as a group, the part we were overlooking was the old Occam’s razor philosophy - the most likely explanation for something is probably correct. We don’t know for sure.”
He did, however, reiterate that he believes Sanders’ slide in the draft was due to how he handled the pre-draft process.
“Now, I think it’s a reasonable debate if you say he’s not a top 5 quarterback on tape at this time,” said Davis. “I’m not sure that it’s reasonable that he’s not a first or second-round type guy. That seems a little unreasonable to me. So, if you go beyond that, then something else probably happened. And my only point was I didn’t think we were giving that the proper credence.”
As for his relationship with Kiper, Davis clarified that there are no problems between them and that he likes working with him.
“It’s fine. I didn’t even know there was an issue until I started getting texts like you were saying,” Davis said. “It’s sort of part and parcel of what we do. Sometimes, for the analyst’s own good and for the good of the show, you challenge their position. Mel’s great. I love working with Mel. And he’s the reason the draft is what it is, in my opinion.”
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