Shedeur Sanders helped turn around the Colorado Buffaloes as he led them to a bowl game, but despite that, he slid down the 2025 NFL Draft.

Sanders was heavily mocked for being drafted in the first round, but he ended up being selected in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns.

According to one anonymous NFL executive, what Deion Sanders said in the past about his son hurt his draft stock.

“It’s never strictly football,” contended a high-ranking decision-maker for an NFL team to USA Today. I think his dad’s involvement hurt him.”

Another high-level executive from another team said the following:

“Some of the things his dad said, I think that weighed on people’s minds.”

Some of the things Deion Sanders said were that Shedeur Sanders would only go to certain NFL teams, as Deion wanted a say to make sure his son would be in a good spot.

Given that many teams didn’t grade Sanders as a starting quarterback, he fell in the draft as teams didn’t want to deal with the headache.

At Colorado last season, Sanders went 353-for-477 for 4,134 yards, 37 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.

Browns expect Shedeur Sanders to compete for QB job

Cleveland selected Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round and he joins a quarterback room that features the likes of Joe Flacco, Deshaun Watson, Kenny Pickett, and Dillon Gabriel.

Although Sanders was selected in the fifth round, and Browns general manager Andrew Berry believes the QB will outperform his slot.

“We live by our board, and we felt like he was a good solid prospect at the most important position,” Berry said, via the team website. “We felt like it got to a point where he was probably mis-priced relative to the draft. The acquisition cost was pretty light, and we think he’s a guy who can outproduce his draft slot.”

With that, Berry says the goal for Sanders is to come into training camp and just work and put all the distractions behind him.

“I think Shedeur has grown up in the spotlight,” Berry said, “but our expectation is for him to come in here and work and compete.”

Sanders will look to not only make a roster spot but could even win the starting quarterback job.