“Not great parenting”: Colin Cowherd calls out Deion Sanders for tanking Shedeur Sanders draft stock by rejecting Eagles and Ravens

Shedeur Sanders' massive fall during the 2025 NFL Draft will likely be something that will never be repeated. The Colorado Buffaloes quarterback was seen as a potential number one pick and a definite first rounder. In reality, Sanders fell to the fifth round before being picked up by the Cleveland Browns.

After this incident, many began to point the finger of blame at Shedeur's father, Deion Sanders, for his sons fall.

On Tuesday, Colin Cowherd reacted to the revelation from Deion that both the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens were considering drafting Shedeur.

"Deion Sanders admitted that the Eagles and the Ravens called his son before the draft, but he did not want to be a long-term backup. Deion is quoted as saying, "I never sat on the bench and learned a lot. Who learns sitting on the bench?". I don't know... Aaron Rodgers, Brady, Patrick Mahomes. Two great organisations said would you like to learn from us?. Nah! Not great parenting."

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This will likely be a massive mistake from Deion. The Eagles and Ravens were offering the chance for Shedeur to sit on the bench for a while and learn from either Jalen Hurts or Lamar Jackson. These are two of the leagues strongest quarterback, and Shedeur would have been able to learn a lot from them.

However , Deion did not want that. He wanted his son to play immediately and to not have any time to develop on the sidelines like many of the top quarterbacks have done in the past. This was one of the many fears that teams had about drafting Shedeur, and almost guaranteed starter requests likely contributed to Shedeur's fall.

Shedeur is now with the Cleveland Browns, where he is not the starting quarterback. Nor is he spending time learning from one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

He is the third string qb to veteran quarterback Joe Flacco (who has struggled this season and could be benched soon), with the backup quarterback being fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel This is a tough situation for Shedeur to be in and jeopardises his chances of starting an NFL game in the immediate future.

Colin Cowherd continues to call out Deion Sanders

Cowherd would go on to further attack Deion Sanders for this decision, saying:

"This isn't about you, Prime Time. Your son doesn't have Prime Time talent. He's an after-school special. You were a Prime Time talent. Totally different ballgame. You're projecting your talent onto your son... This story's been undercovered because Deion's very popular in the media. But this is insane."

Deion's thoughts that he wants his kids to have the same amount of prestige and talent in the NFL could have cost his son the opportunity to become a top quarterback in the future.

Shedeur can not be compared to Deion Sanders, not only due to differences in positions, but the fact that the way the sport is played today is completely different from what is was when Deion was playing.

However, while fair comparisons can not be made, the two will always be linked in terms of football careers, something that may limit Shedeur in the long run as it has already this year.

Edited by Ben Tredinnick