QB Shedeur Sanders could go anywhere from the second-overall pick to the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Analyst Louis Riddick believes Shedeur’s father, Deion Sanders, would be fine with any scenario—as long as it’s to the right team. And he doesn’t believe the right teams are at the top of the draft, like the Cleveland Browns.
“I hope he doesn’t go in the top three picks”, Riddick said of Sanders on ESPN, via Pro Football Talk. “I hope he doesn’t. And I think his camp would tell you the same thing. There are other teams they want to go to”.
The Tennessee Titans, Browns, and New York Giants hold the top three picks in the draft. While the Titans are expected to draft QB Cam Ward, the field opens up considerably after that. The Browns certainly may want to draft Shedeur Sanders, but they have many other options. And if they sense that Shedeur and Deion don’t want to have anything to do with Cleveland, they may pivot.
As Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com points out, Louis Riddick and Deion Sanders are close, and by extension Shedeur, too. They played together in 1992 as members of the Atlanta Falcons before their paths diverged. But they remain close, and Sanders supported Riddick’s recent bid to earn the Jets’ general manager position.
“Shedeur is someone that wants to be collaborative”, Cabot quoted Riddick as saying about Sanders on ESPN. “He’s someone that you want to talk with. He doesn’t like to be told, ‘This is the way we’re going to do things, and you’re just going to need to fall in line’”.
Riddick also spoke with Cabot, naming the Steelers as one team he believes is best for Shedeur Sanders. He cited HC Mike Tomlin as a principal reason, but he also named the Saints and Raiders. Indeed, he had plenty of positive things to say about the Browns but then offered his reasons against them. Particularly, he cited their revolving door at quarterback for the past quarter-century.
Notably, Cabot points out that Deion Sanders met with Browns representatives at Shedeur’s showcase. He even had positive things to say about Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, whom basically nobody likes. Deion previously said he would keep his son from landing with the wrong team but has since toned down that language considerably as Shedeur approached draft eligibility.
If indeed Shedeur and Deion Sanders don’t want him to go to the Browns, I’m sure he would hardly be alone. The only players who might get excited about going to Cleveland are the ones who have area connections. Or they simply don’t care, or are bad at geography. Because certainly nobody goes there thinking they’re going to win games.
