"Those kind of things can come back and haunt you": Stephen A. Smith points fingers at Deion Sanders for son, Shedeur's, draft slide

It's been over a month since college football fans were left shellshocked after presumptive first-round pick Shedeur Sanders slid down to the fifth round, where he was taken 144th by the Cleveland Browns in the 2025 NFL draft.

Much has been made of why it happened. Some attribute it to Shedeur's "arrogant and brash" attitude during interviews at the NFL Combine, while some allege that his father and Colorado coach Deion Sanders will have an overpowering influence if the rookie gets drafted to a team the Hall of Famer didn't like.

Months before the draft, Deion said that he wouldn't like it if a team that can't help his son develop as a quarterback ended up drafting him, with many alleging that Shedeur might do what Eli Manning did after his draft.

Amid this, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith went on a rant against Deion Sanders for being the reason for Shedeur's draft fall.

"Is there culpability on the part of Deion Sanders? Yes," Smith said (7:55 onwards). "Because you don’t go on national television and tell the world, “Your son’s going to listen to you. By the way, you know what? I don’t give a damn what the NFL team is — if it ain’t the right situation, we ain’t going to go for it.” Because those kinds of things can come back to haunt you."

Smith even said that if given the chance, Sanders might have refrained from speaking so much about Shedeur had he known this would happen.

"And I think 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.

Shedeur Sanders regrets how he handled things pre-draft

While Shedeur Sanders didn't go into details when asked if he would have handled things differently ahead of the draft, he was affirmative.

“I feel like in life, there’s always a way I can improve,” he told Cleveland media during a conference call. “I’m able to improve. And some things that I (did) seemed right at the time. I could’ve went about it in a different way.”

While Shedeur Sanders would have hoped to be a first round pick with a starting quarterback spot, the reality is that he will have to battle for the Browns' QB1 spot, which is well contested by veterans Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and earlier round pick Dillon Gabriel.