Shedeur Sanders is the biggest story of the NFL Draft. The son of Deion Sanders was projected to go as high as No. 2, or as late as the early second round.
That is not what happened.
In reality, he dropped out of the third round all together. His name was not called on Day 1 or Day 2 of the NFL Draft. Dillon Gabriel, Jalen Milroe and Tyler Shough were all picked before him. It got to the point that his free fall became hard to watch.
However, even as the haters continue to hate, Shedeur Sanders is still making money. Kind of.
Hypothetically speaking, the former Jackson State and Colorado quarterback missed out on millions of dollars as a fourth round pick (or later) compared to the No. 2 overall pick or any pick inside the Top 10. Technically speaking, that was never his money to begin with. He was never guaranteed a $40+ million contract so that money does not actually count in terms of the zeros in his bank account. No actual dollar amount was lost. Just figurative numbers.
And speaking of figurative numbers, Sanders is recouping some of that money lost through brand exposure. His ‘Legendary’ clothing brand was on display throughout the entire weekend.
It was featured on his chain.
It was featured at his party for the first round.
The bus that drove his family and friends was branded with his logo.
He wore his own brand throughout the entire first two days.
Even though the NFL Draft did not go as Shedeur Sanders hoped, the painful slide actually allowed for his brand to receive more exposure. According to Apex Marketing, an analytics company focused on sports and entertainment sponsorships, branding and product placements, the Legendary brand received more than $600,000 in free marketing value from the draft coverage— as of 4:30pm on Saturday.
Although that is just one estimate, I tend to believe that it is pretty accurate. In fact, I would not be surprised if it was not closer to $700,000 or above, rather than $600,000 or less. Every single time the cameras cut to Shedeur, his logo was featured front and center.
The people who hate him were not going to buy his clothes anyway. The people who think he is cool were presented with numerous opportunities to think “might as well” or “wow that’s hard,” hop over to his website and pull the trigger on some merch. Legendary’s free exposure only continued to increase with every pick that went by— for better or for worse.