Stephen A. Smith blames Deion Sanders for Shedeur slide: ESPN analyst says teams didn't want to deal with Primetime

Daniel Chavkin

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Stephen A. Smith blames Deion Sanders for Shedeur slide: ESPN analyst says teams didn't want to deal with Primetime image

The biggest storyline of the NFL Draft's first round is Shedeur Sanders, as the Colorado quarterback fell out of the first round Thursday night. Fans and analysts are now debating why Sanders fell so far, but there is far from a consensus for the reasoning behind the slide.

Stephen A. Smith, however, is making it clear that he believes Sanders' fall is due to his dad, Deion Sanders. Any team that takes the quarterback will run the risk of dealing with Coach Prime more often than most players' parents, potentially giving them some pause about drafting Sanders.

Last year, Deion Sanders declared Shedeur a future top-five pick, and that was before the quarterback had a strong 2024 season. So Sanders' fall is notable, if nothing else for proving Deion's prediction incorrect.

Here's what Smith said on Friday about Sanders' slide.

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Why did Shedeur Sanders drop in the draft?

According to Stephen A. Smith, that answer would be his father, Deion Sanders. On First Take, the bombastic Smith made it clear that he believes Primetime is hindering Shedeur Sanders' draft profile.

"I believe that the biggest issue in all of this was Primetime Deion Sanders and the thought of having to deal with him," Smith said, "It's hard for me to sit here today and to watch a dude that was once projected to be one of the top two picks potentially in the draft to drop completely out of the first round, and to ignore all those reports that had come out about him leading into the draft." 

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Throughout the draft process, Sanders received a whole lot of criticism for how he handled the process, along with concerns over his dad's role in his career. While many analysts argued that Sanders' talent isn't worthy of a first-round pick, Smith isn't buying it.

"If you think that I'm going to sit here and assume that that was strictly an evaluation about his football skills alone that led to him falling out the entire first round without his father having an impact, I don't buy that," he said.

On football evaluation alone, many draft analysts had Sanders as a late-first, early-second round pick. While TSN and NFL.com had Sanders ranked No. 20 overall, The Athletic has him ranked at No. 23 overall and Yahoo Sports has him at No. 41.

However, it's impossible to ignore the unique circumstance that Shedeur brings to a team as being Deion's son. Not only that, but Sanders played all four of his college seasons with his father as his head coach.

MORE SHEDEUR SANDERS NEWS:

Daniel Chavkin

Daniel Chavkin is a Digital Content Producer for The Sporting News. A 2018 graduate from the University of Maryland, he has previously written for Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports and NFLTradeRumors.com.