Rece Davis clears air after tense on-air clash with fellow ESPN star over Shedeur Sanders' NFL Draft drop

Sheduer Sanders' unexpected drop from a projected first-round pick to a fifth-round selection was the majority of polarizing topic from last week's NFL Draft Longtime ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr was among the staunch defenders of Sanders and the former Colorado star's fall to the Cleveland Browns appeared to leave the broadcaster in a state of disbelief Shortly after Sanders' name came off the board Kiper unleashed on NFL franchises which led to a clash between him and colleague Rece Davis CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COMKiper explained the NFL had been clueless for five decades evaluating quarterbacks Kiper appeared further perplexed due to his belief Sanders is one of the toughest quarterbacks you ve ever seen NFL analyst Louis Riddick then explained to Kiper that the question wasn t about whether Sanders could play quarterback but from a gang perspective whether a unit sought him Davis agreed with Riddick who added The draft has spoken The on-air spat sparked questions about whether selected level of animosity existed between Davis and Kiper But during a latest appearance on OutKick's Don t Me with Dan Dakich the ESPN College GameDay host made it clear he doesn't have a challenge with his colleague SHEDEUR SANDERS REVEALS BOLD GOAL AS MEMBER OF BROWNSDavis acknowledged the job Kiper is tasked with as a draft analyst First of all and I'm not doing that thing that Pete Thamel accuses me of where I say two things nice about somebody and then offer a critique or something Davis recounted Dakich But the reason there were whatever the number of fans was in Detroit the previous year is largely due to what Mel's done for the draft And Mel s job is to make his rankings of the players and defend them And I didn t mind him disagreeing and I don t mind him saying anything he required 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 the greater part likely explanation for something is possibly correct We don t know for sure Davis then pointed to Sanders' widely scrutinized handling of the pre-draft process arguing it could have played a role in the quarterback's fall But it was almost certain that at that point in the draft that something had happened in the pre-draft process involving Shedeur Sanders that was keeping teams from taking him Davis added Now I think it s a reasonable debate if you say he's not a top quarterback on tape at this time 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 maybe happened And my only point was I didn't think we were giving that the proper credence Davis stated his relationship with Kiper was in a good place and he enjoys working with him It s fine I didn t even know there was an issue until I started getting texts like you were saying he noted 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 Shortly after the Browns selected Sanders on the final day of the draft he took to social media to share a short but emotional message Thank you GOD Sanders finished the season at Colorado with passing yards He will join a crowded quarterback room in Cleveland with Deshaun Watson Joe Flacco Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel Fox News' Ryan Gaydos contributed to this account Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter