Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he was “hurt” by the narratives criticizing his son Shedeur Sanders’ approach to the NFL Draft process and urged naysayers to “stop lying.”
Shedeur entered the 2025 NFL Draft widely regarded as a top-two quarterback with eventual No. 1 pick Cam Ward, but he ended up sliding to the fifth round, when the Cleveland Browns selected him with pick No. 144. Shedeur’s brother, safety Shilo Sanders, signed as an undrafted free agent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the draft.
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“There was some foolish stuff that went on, but you know what? That gave them something that they needed,” Deion said on an episode of the “Say What Needs To Be Said” podcast, hosted by former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel.
“That edge that Tom (Brady) had, that you have, it gave them that edge that I have. Folks said we weren’t going to be nothing. We had to prove that. That gave them the edge that they needed. Both of them,” Deion said.
Shedeur played four college football seasons, two at Jackson State and two at Colorado, all for his dad, the head coach. Leading up to the draft, Shedeur was reported to have interviewed well in some places but poorly in others. His fall to a Day 3 pick became one of the highest-profile draft slides in recent memory and sparked many questions about the quarterback’s predraft approach and professionalism, narratives that Deion shut down on the podcast.
“You’re not going to catch (Shedeur) in no foolery, no mess, you’re not going to do that, whatsoever,” Deion said. “So when you sit up there and say something like he went in a meeting unprepared, like dude, Shedeur Sanders? Who’s had six different coordinators? Who has still functioned and leveled up every time we brought somebody new in? You’re going to tell me he had on headphones?
“Anybody who knows my son understands he’s a professional. He’s going into a meeting with headphones on? C’mon, man.”
Since the draft, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady has advised Shedeur to use the draft “as motivation.” Shedeur has said he’s put the draft behind him.
“My job here isn’t to prove people wrong,” Shedeur said in his first media availability with the Browns. “It’s to prove myself right.”
Shedeur is competing with fellow 2025 draft pick Dillon Gabriel, along with veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett, for the quarterback job in Cleveland. Through the Browns’ first few OTAs, the starting role appears to be trending toward Flacco or Pickett, with the two rookies battling for longer-term positioning.
“All you have to do is just sit back and listen, but people don’t want to do that,” Deion said. “They want to create these narratives and create these stories and then attach them to a kid that ain’t ever done anything wrong.”
(Photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
