The NFL Draft is all about young college athletes seeing their dreams come true. However, throughout the three days of the 2025 edition, a lot of the focus has been going to ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. This should never be the case again.
Since the start of the draft, Kiper has been whining about the fact that Shedeur Sanders took a huge fall and he didn't land where he or other experts predicted him to. In the end, Sanders dropped all the way to the fifth round, with the Cleveland Browns taking him with the No. 144 overall pick.
You'd think after Sanders was taken off the board that Kiper would be happy, right? Nope. Instead, he lit up NFL general managers, claiming they haven't been able to scout QBs for the past 50 years, which is absurd. Fans have just about had it with Kiper too.
Mel Kiper Jr. has been losing his mind throughout the NFL Draft and fans have had it
The beef people had with Kiper came right at the start of things on Thursday night with Cam Ward going No. 1 overall to the Tennessee Titans. As soon as that happened, Kiper dedicated most of his time to speaking about why he thought Sanders was still QB1 in the draft over Ward. It was absurd. Since then, more bad takes have come in and people are indeed letting him have it on social media:
Mel Kiper Jr is proof you can be on TV for 25 years without having any real talent pic.twitter.com/gStl54mUa0
— kevin smith (@kevin_smith45) April 25, 2025
Mel Kiper Jr. should be exiled from NFL draft coverage
— Jake “JBOY” Crain (@JakeCrain_) April 26, 2025
pic.twitter.com/gJpq0L0EhL
Mel Kiper Jr: “For 50 years the NFL’s had no idea how to evaluate quarterbacks.” Bro. You ranked some guy named Forrest Lamp ahead of Patrick Mahomes. Pipe down. pic.twitter.com/jBsAKxNhpo
— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) April 26, 2025
I genuinely don’t know if ESPN can put Mel Kiper Jr. on TV again next year.
— Jamey Vinnick (@jameyvinnick9) April 26, 2025
The temper tantrum he’s thrown the last three days has been beyond unprofessional and good on Rece Davis for putting his foot down.
32 NFL GM's just exposed ESPN & Mel Kiper Jr. as a biased, for-hire media propaganda vehicle. Any shreds left of their reputations as proper journalists flew out the window tonight. You simply don't miss the mark on Shedeur this hard any other way. #NFLDraft2025
— Greg Epstein (@GregEpstein) April 26, 2025
Whoa! Mel Kiper Jr. just called this a reach. https://t.co/Rh1kyfuF0T
— Cousin Sal (@TheCousinSal) April 26, 2025
Mel Kiper is insufferable man. Out here telling the NFL they are clueless about evaluating QBs and arguing with his colleagues on air because one of his top guys didn’t get drafted high again. If you were that guy some team would have paid you a bag to be a GM, shut your ass up.
— Casey (@sisterthiccness) April 26, 2025
There are plenty of more posts online similar to the ones above. We understand that Kiper was high on Sanders and that he thinks he'll be a superstar in the league, but why in the world does he have to behave this way on live TV?
Is he trying to act like Stephen A. Smith or Skip Bayless to try to drive up ESPN's ratings? We have no idea, but the more he talked about Sanders, the more people wanted to either turn their TV off or watch a different channel for their draft needs.
People are calling for ESPN to ban Kiper from the draft next season. We won't take things that far, but he's gotta do a 180 next April and not be so biased if things don't go his way. Otherwise, even more people will be furious with him in 2026.