NFL Exec Says Shedeur Sanders Will Scare Off Teams: 'It's About Him, Not the Team'

NFL Draft season is in full effect coming out of the scouting combine, with one of the big stories being the apparent drop in Shedeur Sanders' stock.

Per The Athletic's Mike Sando, one NFL executive expects some teams will be scared off by Sanders.

"Not because of the kid, but because of the dad (Deion Sanders), the social media stuff and how it’s about him, not the team," the executive said.

Deion Sanders could take an active role in where Shedeur ends up getting drafted. He has already said there are a "couple of teams" he won't allow his son to play for.

It's unclear who the teams that Deion doesn't want Shedeur to play for. The last time there was a situation like this was in 2004 when Eli Manning didn't want to be drafted by the San Diego Chargers, but they wound up selecting him with the top pick anyway before trading him to the New York Giants in a swap for No. 4 pick Philip Rivers.

Shedeur did maintain an active social-media presence throughout his college career. His brother, Deion Sanders Jr., started a media company that frequently documented Shedeur, Deion and Travis Hunter at Colorado.

It would seem unlikely Shedeur will continue that level of online involvement in the NFL, especially given how much teams don't want anything they do to be documented.

NFL draft analyst Todd McShay said Monday on his podcast that two teams picking in the top 10 of the 2025 draft came away from their combine interviews with Sanders thinking he "did not care too much what they or the organization felt of him."

Per The Athletic's Dane Brugler, "a lot" of teams don't consider Sanders to be a first-round quarterback and there's a chance he could fall out of the top 32 picks entirely.

On talent, there's plenty of optimism about what Sanders has to offer an NFL team. B/R's NFL scouting department has him ranked as the No. 18 overall prospect in the class, with Dame Parson writing he is "one of the purest passers from the pocket" in this draft.

Sanders' production in 2024 was as good as any college quarterback in the country. He threw for 4,134 yards, 37 touchdowns and completed 74.0 percent of his attempts in 13 games.