The Shedeur Sanders saga has gone from unexpected to inexplicable.

The former Colorado quarterback's fall out of the NFL draft's first round Thursday night was surprising.

But then came Friday night's plummet.

Widely projected as one of the top quarterback prospects in this year's draft, Sanders is stunningly still available entering the fourth round Saturday.

After watching the New York Giants trade up to No. 25 on Thursday night to select Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, Sanders on Friday night had to stomach the New Orleans Saints selecting Louisville's Tyler Shough, the Seattle Seahawks selecting Alabama's Jalen Milroe and the Cleveland Browns selecting Oregon's Dillon Gabriel.

Also, similar to Thursday night, Friday night offered multiple opportunities for teams needing quarterbacks to select Sanders, but each opportunity ended without him hearing his name.

Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton, who has known Sanders since he was in junior high school, said teams who passed over the quarterback should "beware," because he would use the snub as motivation in a successful NFL career.

"He's gonna, like there'll be this chip on his shoulder, and beware because this guy is going to play in this league," Payton said Friday.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has a relationship with the Sanders family, praised Shedeur's character.

"I watched two or three ballgames with [Sanders]," Jones said. "So with my knowledge, I know where the character is there, and boy, it is great character. It is an unbelievable competitive winning character for sports."

Asked Friday night to add context to Sanders' fall, one executive from a team in the quarterback market said there was "no smoking gun, but it's not just football either." The executive indicated that Sanders' celebrity and the attention he would bring would complicate his selection because he is not seen as a star.

The Browns passed on Sanders four times, including twice in four picks in the second round. The Steelers, who have no proven starting quarterback, passed on Sanders for the second time in two nights.

Sanders on Friday evening had little to say other than one post on X: "Thank you GOD for EVERYTHING," he wrote.

Sanders was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and is the son of Hall of Fame cornerback and Colorado coach Deion Sanders, giving him a huge profile unlike few college football players before him.

Shedeur Sanders' game has been criticized, including his limited mobility and tendency to hold the ball too long while in the pocket. But as Friday night wore on, Sanders' fall became more confounding. It raised questions about whether his celebrity and immense confidence were off-putting to some teams, as predraft reporting indicated.

Sanders' drop is being discussed among the biggest draft falls in memory, given his status as one of the nation's top quarterbacks and the expectation that he would be drafted relatively early.

The predraft expectations for Sanders were at least comparable to those of former Kentucky standout Will Levis, who slid from a projected early first-round choice in 2023. But Levis' wait was hardly similar to Sanders' experience. Levis was selected by the Tennessee Titans at 33rd overall -- the first pick in the second round.

It's anyone's guess what happens with Sanders. After an active free agency for quarterbacks, and with the continued availability of free agent Aaron Rodgers, few teams are likely considering selecting a quarterback for a prominent role on their team on Day 3 of the draft.

That means if and when Sanders is selected, he might be in a suboptimal situation that might not lead to immediate playing time. That might be quite the adjustment for a player who promised to immediately change the franchise he eventually joins.

"We went from Jackson State to Colorado and changed two programs back to back," Sanders said in February at the NFL scouting combine. "So you don't think I could come to an NFL franchise and change the program again? It's history. We've done it again. It's always going to repeat itself."

The final four rounds of the draft Saturday begin at noon ET.

ESPN's Jeff Legwold and Todd Archer contributed to this report.