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Stephen A. Smith Partly Blames Coach Prime for Shedeur Sanders’ NFL Draft Slide

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jeremy Beren | Last updated Jun 5, 2025 4:50 PM ET

Deion Sanders has always been there for Shedeur Sanders. When Coach Prime was named the head coach at Jackson State University in 2020, Shedeur de-committed from Florida Atlantic to join his father – a decision that paid off handsomely for the Sanders family.

Deion and Shedeur Sanders both opted to make the jump from FCS football in 2022, when Coach Prime was named head coach at the University of Colorado. Within two years, the Buffaloes were transformed from a 1-11 team to a 9-4 team that boasted Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year Shedeur Sanders.

Long before Shedeur declared for the 2025 NFL Draft, Deion Sanders made it clear that he would take an active role in the pre-draft process. Coach Prime boldly predicted his son was good enough to be the top overall pick, and even "pull an Eli Manning" to place Shedeur with a better team than one picking at the top of the draft.

"Have you ran across anybody that said, 'Deion Sanders said one thing to your face and said something else behind your back.' That's not who that man is."

—@stephenasmith on Deion Sanders defending Shedeur Sanders' professionalism ✍️ pic.twitter.com/TizCAxjPtL
— First Take (@FirstTake) June 3, 2025

Prime never had to worry about that, though. Shedeur lasted until the fifth round of the draft, when the Cleveland Browns selected him 144th overall and ended one of the most stunning draft slides in recent memory.

On "First Take," Stephen A. Smith assigned partial blame to Coach Prime for the way that the Shedeur saga unfolded. Smith explained that Deion Sanders should not have taken such a front-facing role in his son's pre-draft process, and that there was ample room for reflection as Shedeur tries to make the Browns' roster.

"I think that if Deion had an opportunity upon reflection, he would do things a little differently himself in terms of how outspoken he was leading into the draft," Smith said. "And Shedeur Sanders obviously said himself there may have been things he would have done differently."

Indeed, Shedeur acknowledged after the draft that he could have interviewed much better than he did, which in turn might have led to his name being called on the first or second day of the draft.

But in the face of such a humbling, Shedeur is doing what he can to climb up the Cleveland depth chart, while Deion is hard at work building a new-look Colorado team.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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