The Shedeur Slide
For pretty much my entire life I have been a Deion Sanders hater. I find him deeply irritating and arrogant, and also he played for the Cowboys, which is probably the worst part. The only time I have enjoyed Deion Sanders was when he notoriously started defending Eli with his “I believe in Eli” schtick. I could not stand his ego. I could not stand his arrogance. The fact that he could back all of it up with some of the best football you’ll ever see made it so much worse. While I generally like big swagger personalities in my sports, Deion was the one I could never bring myself to truly like. He is just too full of himself. He might be the GOAT sports ego. All of this is to say, this was the funniest NFL draft I have ever watched. By the end of day 2 I did feel bad for Shedeur, but I was filled with absolute glee knowing Deion must have been furious.
So why did Shedeur slide? Honestly? I think a lot of it was Deion’s fault. But not exclusively. This was a complicated confluence of factors all compiling into one kerfuffle. Let’s have fun dissecting it.
HE WAS NOT A GREAT QB PROSPECT FOR THE MODERN NFL
Before draft season really started basically everyone was saying that this was a weak year for Quarterbacks. Had Cam Ward and Shedeur come out last year, both would have been ranked pretty low, around where Bo Nix was. So why did Cam Ward go #1 overall but Shedeur slid? Cam Ward has the physical tools and the potential. The league has changed, and immobile unathletic QBs just aren’t highly valued anymore. Many of the best QBs in the league came into the league as physical specimens that needed a little refinement. Low floor, high ceiling guys. That’s Cam Ward. He’s kind of a dummy, but he’s got the rocket arm and the demeanor that could pan out wonderfully. Look at a couple of the other guys who went before Sanders, like Dart or Milroe. Flawed, athletic prospects who could be molded with high ceilings. Shedeur is the opposite as a prospect. Shedeur is a high floor, low ceiling guy. He is not very athletic or mobile. He’s just…limited. He’s coached well, you can tell he knows the game very well, he’s accurate, he can absolutely run a pro-style offense. But he just…isn’t much more. He feels like a backup guy. Someone who can run your system but will not elevate it. On top of that, he played for a smaller school against weaker competition and was not very impressive. Travis Hunter was the real Atlas of Colorado. Shedeur absolutely has the tools and the brain to work in the NFL, but until the hype meter took over, a lot of the smarter draft pundits had him as a second or third-round guy to start with. A flawed prospect with some skills that might pan out. I have to imagine most NFL scouts had him there as well. We give teams a lot of shit for being dumb, but in many ways they are also smarter than we give them credit for.
HE DID NOT INTERVIEW WELL AND HAD CHARACTER CONCERNS
Swagger in sports is not a negative, despite what your shitty uncle says when a black guy dances after a touchdown. Some kids just have it, and that’s how they operate. Some folks thrive off being loud and boisterous, and a big healthy ego can take a guy pretty far in this field. But there is a point where it crosses a line into sheer arrogance. We had multiple reports of Sanders being a terrible interview. He was apparently rude to teams and garbage at whiteboard stuff (Which actually surprised me, I expected him to be good at that). After the Nebraska game, Sanders threw his offensive line under the bus. Now, let’s be clear, being thrown under a bus might be higher praise than that offensive line deserved, but that’s something we get to say, not Sanders. You do not throw your teammates under a bus. That’s a big character no-no. Nobody was calling Shedeur a leader of men. They were calling him an arrogant dick. Johnny Manziel, another famous arrogant asshole, did not interview poorly. Being a douche alone won’t prevent you from being drafted. But compile this with his limitations as a prospect, his dad, the noise and drama considering his identity, and being a douche did absolutely nothing to help his case. Deion famously walked out of interviews during his draft process if teams were drafting at pick 10 or lower because he knew he wouldn’t be around that late. He got away with that because he was a generational prospect. Shedeur is not. But he acted like it. Confidence is great. Arrogance annoys people.
THE HYPE WAS OVERBLOWN
Take a moment to separate Sanders from his identity. Pretend he’s just a guy named Shad Saunders. No famous dad. Just the exact same guy Shedeur is without the media baggage. Is that guy slipping into the 3rd or later really a surprise or newsworthy? No. Nobody would be freaking out. But Shedeur is Deion’s kid. He’s been hyped up by the media circus for years. ESPN especially seemed hellbent on the Shedeur content farm. Shedeur brings in clicks. He brings attention. Many of us watched in delight as he fell because none of us are immune, even as haters. Mel Kiper was especially notable as an insufferable madman during this process, ranking Shedeur as his #1 and losing his damn mind at every pick that passed. Cam Ward might be the most disrespected #1 pick of all time because ESPN immediately just started talking about Sanders instead as soon as Cam was picked. ESPN and other outlets knew Sanders was attention-getting, so they fed into the Sanders story, and it prevented so many people from admitting who he actually was as a prospect and measuring that hype.
THE NOISE
To supplement the hype problem is the noise problem. Teams do not like noise. A little bit of hype and fun is welcome, but beyond that many places find it an unbearable distraction. The noise itself is not necessarily an issue, Tim Tebow was drafted in the first round, so was Johnny Manziel, and they carried a bunch of noise. But that noise also hurt them, Tebow especially. Tebow was overdrafted by an idiot, and the amount of noise that came with that choice was unbelievable. His career might have lasted a while longer if he could just exist on a team instead of being swarmed for attention. If you are an absolute stud, like Deion Sanders, the noise is bearable. If you are not Deion Sanders, or Cam Newton, or Odell Beckham, etc, the noise is not worth it. This especially becomes a factor as Shedeur slid out of the first and became a backup QB prospect. Do you really want all this noise for a guy who might sit at #2 or #3 on your depth chart? That probably pushed Sanders further than he might have gone otherwise.
THE DEION PROBLEM
After Shedeur slid out of round 2 I started to wonder. After he slid out of round 3, it felt obvious that Deion fucked this up for Shedeur. I feel bad for Shedeur in some ways. He’s a victim of clear celebrity helicopter parenting by an egomaniac. He’s gone wherever Dad wants him to go. It feels like he’s never had the chance to be his own person. Deion is like the dad who tries to get a teacher fired when the teacher gives his child a bad grade or tries to discipline him. If you want a comparison, look at Arch Manning. Arch is another guy who is going to enter the league amidst a fuckton of noise, another prospect who is likely to be overhyped due to his identity and any flaws he might have ignored. But the Mannings haven’t helicoptered Arch quite the same way as Deion. Arch’s dad isn’t the coach of Texas. Hell, the family didn’t push him into Ole Miss or Tennessee, they let him commit to his choice of school. Arch seems like he’s getting at least some ability to become an individual and not the family’s excuse to live vicariously. The Mannings aren’t guilt-free, you can see how they manipulated Eli’s draft scenario for proof, but they haven’t been such overbearing presences the way Deion is. It’s telling that a lot of people half-predicted Deion to pull an Eli/Elway if Shadeur went to the wrong team. Deion spent so much time hyping up his son and being a media magnet that it caused so much of the noise that appears to have damaged Shedeur’s chances. The Cult of Deion that formed just made it worse. Shedeur is inseparable from Deion in a way no other next generation player has ever been. I saw people genuinely wonder if one of the reasons Sanders slid so far was not just because of the noise, but the possibility that anywhere he goes then becomes a target for Deion’s next job. It sounds ridiculous, but then…not as ridiculous as it should sound. If Deion does take an NFL coaching gig, we can all see him going after Shedeur, can’t we? Hell, Stefanski is not in comfortable territory, it might be sooner than we think. The fall was so dramatic that many people have floated the idea of Shedeur being punished by teams to some degree, but I think if that is happening, it isn’t necessarily a punishment of Shedeur. It’s punishment directed towards Deion. To be honest, that was the main reason so many of us were laughing at the slide, because we all find Deion Sanders insufferable and his sadness is our joy.
THE RACIAL PROBLEM
I’m far to white to be an expert here so I won’t speak at length on it, but Sanders being a loud, brash, confident black guy going into what is still a white-controlled industry at the top is likely another factor at play. But Sanders is far from the first loud, confident, brash black guy to enter the league. The name I keep coming back to is Cam Newton. Cam was in many ways the same confident guy, and he even had character concerns (remember when him stealing a laptop was this huge thing?). Cam faced a lot of racism himself. Cam still went #1 overall without hesitation. The noise, the hype, the attitude: this is sports, and all of that can get overlooked if you’re a baller. Shedeur just isn’t that level of baller at this point. I think racism was absolutely an element to his fall, seeing Dart or Shough and even Dillion Gabriel go higher to the same damn team feels a bit off, but I think anyone assuming it was the main element is focusing on only one brick on the wall.
IN CONCLUSION
Take away one or two of these factors and Shedeur probably goes higher. I think all of this pushed him unfairly into day 3 when he would have been a perfectly acceptable day 2 pick. In 2022 we had another weak QB draft that saw a lot of flawed, weak QB prospects getting projected as first rounders because they played QB. The league rightfully passed over all of them except Kenny Pickett, and Pickett didn’t deserve 1st rounder status. This year was similar, just with one of those weak prospects having a huge identity pedigree and a lot of unjust attention. I think him being a mediocre prospect was the #1 reason he slid out of round 1. I think all the other factors compiled onto that were what pushed him past day 2.
I actually think Sanders went to the right spot just in an embarassing way. Stefanski’s system is Shedeur friendly and with his only competition being Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and Dillion Gabriel, he’s got a decent chance to prove himself worthy. It must sting that the Browns literally took a different QB first, Dillion Gabriel, before they even took him, but that’s that. They might have done it to keep him from Pittsburgh. If Sanders is genuinely closer to a first-round talent player as projected then this is the steal of the draft. The Browns took a guy many had them drafting at #2 at #144 instead. That’s value. Sanders, if nothing else, has the ego and the chip on his shoulder to let this drive him, and he might finally have some time to grow as an individual away from daddy provided Deion stays in Colorado for a while. The prank call to Sanders during the draft was absolutely cruel even as someone who was laughing at the slide. Shedeur might be an egotistical dick, but after this draft, there’s a part of me rooting for him. If Shedeur proves everyone wrong, that just gives Deion more shit-talk we can’t argue with.
There will not be a comic on Wednesday as I had to fly home on short notice for a funeral. Hug and call your relatives, folks. Even the ones you don’t see as often.
I just can’t get over how ridiculous Mel Kiper acted during the entire thing. I think the most ridiculous thing he said was that the NFL had no ability to recognize QB talent for 50 years, and that HE was better than the NFL. I honestly thought one of his cohosts would tell him to shut up eventually, because it looked like they were done with the whole rant.
I think one of the problems with ESPN wasn’t *just* farming clicks. A lot of these guys worked with Deion over the years, probably saw Shedeur grow up at family picnics and what not. Mel’s always been borderline unhinged, but he definitely seemed to take this personally.
It was wild coming from the guy who infamously claimed he would retire if Jimmy Clausen wasn’t a top QB in eight years and who had Luke Falk ranked above Pat Mahomes.
I thought similarly, seeing him as a Day 2 pick, but I was expecting someone in the top 10 to be desperate enough. The Browns, Jets and Giants, all teams desperate for a starter and with a less than great drafting QB track record? I thought one would bite.
And then he slid past *Pittsburgh* a team that has been in purgatory as being just good enough to having a winning record and nothing else and even *they* didn’t want him?
And then the Giants traded back into the 1st for JAXSON DART? That’s when I realized where teams in the league were seeing Shadeur
Was his song set to the tune of “Doing the Sponge”?
I have so many issues with the public discourse, and you didn’t even mention the one that I find to be the most disengenuous/annoying. You’ve got your Stephen A Smiths, Skip McBrainlesses, and Club Shay Shays screaming “Collusion!” at the top of their lungs, whilst making absolutely ZERO concessions for the fact that the family is arrogant beyond what ANYONE would want to deal with, other than Stephen A briefly saying, “We won’t pretend Deion doesn’t have some dirt on his hands, BUT…!!!!”
I just don’t understand how you can come to the “obvious” idea that this was collusion geared towards punishing the Sanders family without even CONCEDING that they kind of come off like entitled a-holes and that turns off a LOT of people in the NFL.
“It’s telling that a lot of people half-predicted Deion to pull an Eli/Elway if Shadeur went to the wrong team.”
No, it’s worse than that, Dave. Deion said this one last year, and I’ve heard him repeat it in other clips:
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“Top four,” said Sanders. “Anywhere from one through four. One of them is going to be one. And the later one will not go behind four. Now, all this is subjective because I know where I want—kind of want them to go. And let’s not forget Shiloh, okay? But I know where I want them to go. So there’s certain cities that ain’t going to happen. It’s going to be, sorry, it’s going to be an Eli.”
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The thing that makes the most sense to me is the Sanders family felt Shedeur’s body of work spoke for him – screw workouts, screw sessions, screw homework – and they treated the draft like THEY were the ones dictating terms and picking where Shedeur would go. You don’t need collusion for every team in the league to look at that attitude and be like, “Yea, nope. Don’t care about your potential, that’s a hard no.” Even when he WAS picked, Stefanski and the Browns GM look MISERABLE. They clearly didn’t want him at all.
You also didn’t mention that Deion was getting into it people last year on Formerly-Known-as-Twitter, and he got community noted when he proclaimed Shedeur would be a Top 5 pick.
https://www.mensjournal.com/sports/deion-sanders-community-noted-shedeur-sanders-nfl-draft-tweet
I think you hit the nail on the head with your last point about Shedeur.
NFL teams want guys, especially at quarterback, that are completely enamored with football. Not just football, but with the league, the shield, Sam spence directing timpani in the background FrozenTundraGameOfInchesMatriculateTheBallDownTheField…
The Sanders, likely at the direction of Deion, blew all that off. They didn’t even pretend to try. DEION was a good enough prospect to pull that off. Unfortunately his dad-vision blinded him to the fact that Shedeur is just not that guy.
Exactly. I’m not saying there isn’t a world in which team owners collectively gave “Dude, can you believe this?” looks to each other at meetings, but to pretend this kid was a GUARANTEED LOCK at the #1 or 2 pick, and the ONLY reason he could have fallen AT ALL is purely because teams wanted to punish the Sanders for… REASONS? That’s the dumbest football conspiracy I’ve heard since “The games are fixed, and the refs ensure the correct team wins while hundreds of employees manage to keep the secret without ANYBODY leaking it.” If you want to convince me of collusion, you need to do so whilst fully acknowledging Deion COMPLETELY f#%@d up this kid’s chances at pretty much every single opportunity he had.
Fully agree, you need to worship football and perform like a GOD if you carry the kind of baggage this kid has, which is a 400lb suitcase labeled “PRIME”. Brandon Perna made another good point I forgot to mention in my original comment… Deion was Shadeur and Shilo’s agent, which is just… DAAAAAMN that’s a bad idea. The person with their finger on the pulse of how teams feel about you is also your dad, AND the head coach of a college program, AND also personally knows a LOT of guys around the league????
Forget conflicts of interest… who is gonna tell Deion anything damning when they KNOW he’s a petty SOB who will then actively work to steer prospects away from you if you tell him his kid sucks? Any LEGITIMATE criticism of how Shedeur was handling himself probably never even made it to the kid, all that would have come through would be softball criticisms to keep the relationship happy, which Deion probably tore up and put through the shreddeur to enseur Shedeur was never ineured to the leur of… of… being impeur. Because theur is no ceur of which we are seur, something something… he fell into the fisseure.
Shilo said it best: “Dad was our agent, but that hasn’t been working out too good. So today I had to sign with an agent.” OUCH.
I haven’t liked some of the stuff Deion has done and he seems too involved but I’m not really too begrudging about a Dad defending and hyping up his kid. Being an idiot on twitter was dumb, but that’s more or less everyone on twitter because that place is toxic as hell, and I include myself in that.
For a team that desperately needs a quarterback, to pass on an alleged 1st round talent 5 times, including taking a _different_ quarterback, it’s clearly not about value. They didn’t want the player. To then take him because “the value was too good not to” shows one of 2 things: either ownership stepped in and forced it, or they were afraid of the narrative of they didn’t take him and he ends up good.
Either way, this is why the browns are, and will always be the browns.
Shedeur’s slide honestly was not all that surprising given the narratives surrounding this QB class. I don’t think anyone expected he would fall all the way to the 5th Round, but him falling out of the First or Second after having been mocked in the Top 5 isn’t the craziest thing in the world. We’ve seen this happen plenty of times, most notably in 2022, where teams correctly evaluate that a QB class simply isn’t worth it and they don’t waste high capital on those players, and in some ways that is exactly what happened here.
What threw me, and a lot of other people off, were the names that were getting picked ahead of him. It’s one thing to drop because the QB-needy teams decide to pass up on the guys in a weaker class. But Shedeur, even with his limitations, was largely considered a QB2 or QB3 at worst. Some people (very stupid people, but still) even had him as a potential QB1. For him to go from that to QB6 with names like Tyler Shough and Dillon Gabriel coming off of the board before he did is inexplicable and frankly goes beyond just interviewing poorly and/or being arrogant. QB rankings are usually very accurate. Draft analysts may not get the round right, but the order in which the players are taken usually stays the same regardless with minor changes here or there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a QB2/3 drop to QB6 on draft night before. I don’t want to call it collusion, but after a certain point, it did start to feel like a humiliation ritual in real time for the guy. Like teams were actively trying to prove a point with him that he can, and will be humbled at this level if he keeps up the act.
It goes without saying that this almost entirely on Deion, though. I think teams were clearly put off by the fact that Deion Sanders has had direct control of Shedeur’s development at literally every stage of his football career. Deion was his High School Coach. Deion was his college coach at both schools he attended. I’m sure Deion was likely coaching him beforehand in Middle School and other levels of football as well. He’s been in Shedeur’s ear for the entire post-college/draft cycle. I don’t think NFL coaches were necessarily worried that Deion would try to hijack their positions should they draft his son (though I don’t think this is entirely baseless), but they did fear the amount of influence and input Deion was going to have with regard to Shedeur’s development. It’s already hard enough to develop young QBs in this league as it stands. Fans are highly reactionary and place unrealistic timelines and expectations on most of these guys, and the media rarely helps with regard to narratives surrounding young QBs that are picked extremely high. Imagine how much worse that could be with a guy like Deion actively commentating on the situation at every turn, especially if Shedeur struggles out the gate. It makes sense why teams were hesitant to draft him. It’s just unfortunate that this came with the cost of Shedeur being humiliated during what was supposed to be one of the best moments of his life.
GOD FUCKING DAMMIT TOMLIN. DID THE DRAFT ROOM HAVE USE LEAD PAINT FOR THE WALLS?
While it does suck for Ward to lose any focus, it’s worth remembering that he was the obvious pick for the Titans for _months_ leading into the draft. Right before the draft, Ward was streaming Fortnite and got asked who the top 4 running backs in the league are. He included both Pollard and Spears in his answer.
That’s a batshit insane take. But it’s what you do when you absolutely know you’re about to be a Titan.
I don’t really begrudge the draft news moving on swiftly once the most obvious pick had occurred and there was finally actual indecision and surprise ready to happen.
Shedeur is a mediocre talent on the field at best. You combine that with being an arrogant jerk and the noise then teams said forget it.
Shedeur and Daddy in their arrogance didn’t realize that the Draft is a JOB Interview !!
Shedeur is not the owner rather he is an employee and in the NFL the QB is the MOST important employee.
Besides being a good player he needs to be mature, smart enough to learn the offense and read a defense and lead the team.
Shedeur with his me me me arrogance turned teams totally off and it is obvious that the only reason the Browns drafted him was Haslam insisted. Look at the picture of the Browns draft room when they picked him, the GM and HC look like they sucked on a lemon.
The only good thing about this is that Shedeur NEEDED to eat some humble pie and he’s going to have to EARN his slot on the roster. Any nonsense and he’ll be cut and shown the door.