Let this serve as a lesson: If you intend to enter the elite workforce that is NFL quarterbacking, you had best come correct — with a healthy respect for the process, the humility to acknowledge that you’re never as good as you think and realize that, despite your best efforts, you’re at the mercy of powerful executives.
Oh, and if you come with a helicopter parent, cut the cord and remind said loved one that at this point, they are to be seen and not heard.
That’s essentially the message NFL teams sent to Shedeur Sanders during his excruciating draft slide. Although heralded as one of the top prospects in the draft, the former Colorado quarterback and son of Hall of Famer-turned-college coach Deion Sanders instead waited two-and-a-half days, four-plus rounds and 143 selections before he heard his name called.
Sanders rose to prominence after helping elevate two college programs — Jackson State and then Colorado. Many draft analysts projected him as a first-rounder and the possible No. 2 pick. The second round seemed to be his floor. Sure, a smattering of unflattering reports from anonymous sources cast a degree of doubt on Sanders’ landing spot. But no one predicted anything close to this weekend’s humiliation.
Finally, 42 hours into the draft, the Cleveland Browns, who on Friday night raised eyebrows with the third-round selection of Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, mercifully called Sanders to welcome him to the franchise.
When he received the news, Sanders’ family erupted with cheers. The quarterback danced with his brother Shilo and then ran and jumped into his swimming pool. The entire football world exhaled with him.
The Sanders saga will go down as one of the most layered and complex draft stories that we will ever see. It’s a tale chock-full of lessons about perceptions and realities, unspoken rules and hard truths about the business of football.
To be clear, “The Shield” remains all-powerful, and 99.9 percent of draft prospects have zero control over their futures.
Deion Sanders was one of the greatest athletes to ever grace a football field. Some 20 years after he did his last “Deion Shuffle,” defensive backs still occasionally pay homage by breaking out the celebration dance. But, although legendary, he was never bigger than “The Shield.” No player is. Yet, the proud father — ever confident in his own word and Shedeur’s abilities — lost sight of that as he tried to strong-arm his son into the best possible situation. He touted him as a sure-fire top-five pick. He threatened to have Shedeur, as the phrase goes, pull an Eli Manning if an undesirable team drafted his son. He ticked off NFL decision-makers.
Sanders instilled in his son a strong sense of self-belief. But because the Prime Time way borders on the extreme, Deion also passed onto Shedeur an off-putting air that NFL talent evaluators perceived as arrogance and entitlement.
With Deion guiding him every step of the way, Shedeur (who has never had anyone but his father as his head coach) opted out of combine workouts, like elite quarterbacks tend to do, as if he had nothing to prove. He bombed multiple team interviews, prompting assessments that he was either sandbagging them to ensure that certain teams didn’t draft him or that he simply lacked respect for the process and/or the men sitting across from him.
If there’s one thing NFL owners, general managers and head coaches detest even in this modern age, it’s a player who doesn’t kiss the ring. Rarely are signs of disrespect and arrogance brushed aside — especially if that player doesn’t possess elite skills, which most NFL talent evaluators agree, young Sanders does not.
And that brings us to the second lesson: NFL-employed talent evaluators and their media counterparts often view players through drastically different lenses.
Deion Sanders wasn’t the only person touting his son as a top-five pick. Many media draft analysts — perhaps swayed by Deion’s assessments and overestimating teams’ levels of desperation in a down year for quarterback prospects — rated Shedeur as a sure first-round pick. NFL executives, scouts and coaches — the only talent evaluators whose opinions truly matter — did not. And it wasn’t just because of the ego issues.
Most coaches and front office members keep their thoughts very close to the vest leading up to the draft. A few didn’t hesitate to crush Sanders for how he handled himself in some interviews, and they also didn’t mind (anonymously) sharing red flags they saw in his game: Holds onto the ball too long. Doesn’t play with good rhythm. Has just average arm strength and athleticism. A few evaluators, so put off by the way the player carried himself, gave him a late-round to undraftable grade. Were they letting their egos or feelings get in the way? Perhaps to a degree.
More muted evaluators chose to chalk Sanders’ behavior up to the influence of his father, and they also noted that no teammate had ever said a bad word about the quarterback. Skill-wise, they didn’t view Sanders as beyond repair, but they didn’t see elite traits.
Asked for an assessment of Sanders’ pro day performance in early April, one NFL talent evaluator in attendance — speaking on condition of anonymity so he could provide an honest answer — said: “Solid, efficient workout. Nothing special or bad.” Another from a different team, when asked for his pre-draft assessment of Sanders, described him as “talented, good movement, can process and read defenses.” But neither executive viewed him as worthy of a first-round pick.
The biggest difference between media analysts and team employees is that the professionals guard themselves against hype. NFL talent evaluators are trained to separate emotion from the decision-making process. There are no rose-colored glasses. Can they miss on prospects? Certainly. Can they botch projections? You bet. But if they do, it’s rarely because they’re riding a hype train.
So, while media and NFL fans expressed surprise that Sanders slid out of the first round, NFL talent evaluators did not. Second or third round felt right in their minds considering the deficiencies in his game, perceived character flaws and a fear of the Deion effect (that Shedeur could heed his father’s advice over his coaches’ in times of struggle, or that the outspoken Deion would criticize any handling of Shedeur with which he disagreed).
But even Shedeur’s harshest critics were surprised he slid out of the third and fourth rounds. Tyler Shough, Jalen Milroe and Gabriel (quarterbacks with comparable or inferior skill sets) went ahead of him. Those scouts and/or coaches may not have wanted Sanders, but they expected somebody to take him before Round 5.
Another Deion misstep in this process: He relied on his understanding/knowledge of the league to assess his son’s capabilities. But he would have been wise to use his connections to receive honest assessments on where Shedeur ranked in the eyes of NFL talent evaluators to 1) provide guidance on where he needed to improve and help his case, and 2) to prepare him for a realistic draft outcome rather than building up expectations of elite-pick status.
Forced to do nothing but watch and wait, Sanders maintained a positive persona during the draft. Rather than bash decision-makers, he continued to declare his faith in God regardless of the outcome.
And that looked like true joy and relief when he finally did get the call.
Shedeur Sanders was live on Twitch the moment he found out he was going to the Browns.
🎥 shilosanders/Twitch pic.twitter.com/Vu17CNk9K7
— The Athletic NFL (@TheAthleticNFL) April 26, 2025
Whether calculated or not, Browns GM Andrew Berry executed a masterful plan in the way that he acquired Sanders. He had a good sense of where the quarterback rated in the eyes of other NFL front offices and was content to let him slide while meeting more pressing needs. He drafted a slightly less productive quarterback (Gabriel) in the third round, forcing Sanders to wait two more rounds, then traded up 22 spots to select him and make him the fifth member of Cleveland’s quarterback room.
Talk about a wake-up call.
Now it’s on Sanders to prove he’s capable of exceeding draft placement and skill assessments. The NFL has indeed seen some Day 3 quarterbacks (including a guy named Brady) go on to win a lot of games and reach multiple Pro Bowls.
If Shedeur plays this right — relegating Deion to dad/cheerleader, acknowledging how little he knows, studying and emulating the approach of former Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco, outworking Kenny Pickett and Gabriel, soaking up every lesson from seasoned quarterbacks coach Bill Musgraves and enlisting the services of a private coach like the well-respected Quincy Avery to refine his skills and processing approach — growth will follow.
If he does those things, and if he is indeed as good as he and his father believe, starting opportunities could come as early as this year. Playing in an offense built on a strong run game and quality offensive line could position Sanders for even greater effectiveness than he displayed in college.
The Shedeur Sanders saga all boils down to humility. Had he possessed a healthy dose of it throughout the pre-draft evaluation process, he could have spared himself the anguish of what transpired. If he learns from his draft experience and adopts a prove-it mindset, he still has a chance to accomplish his “legendary” dreams.
(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
