Simply by being Deion Sanders’ most well-known son, Shedeur Sanders has faced plenty of media scrutiny from early in his career. His strong mindset and familiarity with media narratives are among the most appealing aspects of him as a prospect. However, there’s no doubt that his psyche has been tested to the limit during the pre-draft process.
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Media professionals lambasted him for his NFL Scouting Combine appearance, and anonymous coaches and executives have been spinning negative yarns — not just about Shedeur’s football ability, but also about who he is as a person. Fortunately, we’re not alone in being tired of the constant character attacks on Sanders.
ESPN analyst Ryan Clark spoke up in Shedeur’s defense on a recent episode of his podcast, The Pivot. There has never been a peep of a negative nature about Sanders from any of his teammates or coaches. Clark, therefore, took specific exception to the anonymous nature of many of these criticisms.
“My biggest problem with (negative media) is obviously the anonymity of all of the comments and all of the quotes and all of the things that we have had reported,” a frustrated Clark said.
“Recently, with this quote from an offensive coach who says he’s ‘entitled,’ who says he ‘puts the blame on teammates.’ I watched Shedeur Sanders get damn near killed for two years at Colorado. And I never saw him berate a lineman on the sideline. I never saw him cuss or scream at a coach,” added the analyst.
Clark compared the coverage of someone like Shedeur, who has never had any actual issues off the football field, to that of Baker Mayfield. For those who forgot, the Buccaneers QB was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct ahead of the 2018 Draft.
“We had a number one overall draft pick get arrested for being disorderly and drunk. And we had more people coming out and saying, ‘Okay here’s who the real Baker Mayfield is, don’t watch this video. He’s a good person, he’s a good leader, he’s this. We had more anonymous people saying those things,” Clark said before continuing,
“Shedeur Sanders has never been arrested! Shedeur Sanders has never been in trouble. Shedeur Sanders has never misused his name to the point of taking advantage of people.”
Another parallel Clark drew was between the coverage of Sanders and the coverage of Johnny Manziel. The Texas A&M Heisman winner was not being taken to task by anonymous coaches and execs for all the issues he had. Yet, they have no problem calling Shedeur Sanders a bad teammate in public based on zero evidence.
“You have Johnny Manziel … who ended up getting a whole documentary about how effed up he was away from the field, but there was no anonymous talk about him. There was no one coming out saying Johnny Manziel isn’t a good person. That Johnny Manziel is entitled, that Johnny Manziel has an alcohol issue.”
All in all, Clark concluded that this has essentially been a deliberate character assassination of Shedeur Sanders by the media at large. In an industry driven by clicks and page views, any negative comment about Sanders quickly became a story designed to spark interest.
“To me, the way that Shedeur Sanders has been covered seems purposeful. It seems that there is some sort of intent to slander or defame him. All of these conversations could be taking place behind closed doors, as they do for so many of these people, and kept it there. But why him? It’s for the clicks… It’s sad that he’s being used this way.”
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In the end, Shedeur Sanders seems singularly prepared to deal with the sort of criticisms he has received. As someone who dealt with his fair share when he was an NFL star in the 1990s, Coach Prime no doubt schooled him on these situations.
Sanders is unlikely to go top three at this point. But there’s every probability that he still hears his name called on Thursday night during the first round. Whether it’s the New Orleans Saints at No. 9, the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 21, or another team that trades back up into the first round, whoever nabs Shedeur is getting a guy who comes off as a well-situated, pro-ready player. And he can contribute in 2025.
