Deion Sanders believes ‘foolish’ pre-draft reports caused Shedeur Sanders’ draft slide

Shedeur Sanders’ slide to the fifth round in the 2025 NFL Draft was one of the biggest storylines to come out of an NFL Draft in quite some time.

Now, Deion Sanders is offering his thoughts on what caused his son’s unprecedented slide down draft boards.

During an appearance on the Say What Needs To Be Said podcast hosted by fellow former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel Sr., Sanders was asked how he felt about his son not only being selected with the 144th overall pick by the Browns but also being drafted behind another quarterback selected by the Browns, former Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel.

Some believe that the looming presence of the always-opinionated Deion Sanders critiquing how NFL coaching staffs utilize Shedeur led to his slide in the draft. Others believe that pre-draft reports about Shedeur’s character concerns played the most significant factor in his fall down the draft boards.

Deion chooses to believe the latter narrative, explaining to Samuel that the “foolish” reports that emerged about Shedeur ultimately hurt his chances in the draft. However, Deion thinks that his son will figure things out, like other football greats who were drafted later, such as Tom Brady.

“It did hurt,” said Sanders. “But the Bible says God uses the foolish things to confound the wise. There was some foolish stuff that went on, but that gave them something that they needed. Like that edge that Tom (Brady) had, it gave them the edge that you had, it gave them the edge that I have. Folks said we weren’t gonna be nothing. But we had to prove that. It gave them the edge that they needed. Both of them.”

Sanders sounded off on the numerous reports that Shedeur entered his pre-draft meetings with teams unprepared, which he simply isn’t buying.

“When you sit up there and say something like he went into a meeting unprepared, like, dude,” Sanders added. “Shedeur Sanders? Who has had six different [offensive] coordinators, who has still functioned and leveled up every time we brought somebody new in, and you’re going to tell me he was unprepared? You’re going to tell me he had on headphones? Anybody who knows my son understands he’s a professional. He’s going to go into a meeting with headphones on? Y’all, come on now.”

“You gonna tell me he was unprepared? You gonna tell me he had on headphones,” – Coach Prime addresses the Shedeur Sanders pre-draft rumors for the first time. pic.twitter.com/pwUW11Bl6P

— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) June 1, 2025

In Deion’s defense, he is far from the only person who believes reports surrounding Sanders about his character ahead of the draft lacked credibility, given that they were mainly from anonymous sources.

But on the other hand, any father is naturally going to assume that their kid wasn’t the problem. It’s easy for Deion to make such statements without necessarily knowing the whole truth.

Regardless of the reasoning behind Shedeur’s draft slide, it is now up to him to prove NFL teams wrong and make an impact in Cleveland.

At least in the eyes of some local media members, he has already done just that. Notably, Browns radio analyst Nathan Zegura recently spoke to how impressive Shedeur has been on and off the field thus far throughout OTAs.