The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Shedeur Sanders Finally Drafted By Browns In 5th Round, Deion’s Hubris Hurt Shedeur, Teams Don’t Want A “Celebrity Backup QB”

Episode Date: April 26, 2025

Colin reacts to Shedeur Sanders' fall in the NFL draft and the Cleveland Browns finally drafting him in the 5th round. He explains why Shedeur isn’t a good enough prospect to overcome the circus surrounding him, why his father Deion’s hubris hurt his draft stock, and why NFL teams don’t want a “celebrity quarterback” as their backup.  Timeline 4:00 Deion’s hubris didn’t help Shedeur’s draft stock 6:00 Shedeur wasn’t a good enough prospect to be making demands of NFL teams 7:45 “Quarterback Dad” is becoming “Pageant Mom” and hurts the kid 9:00 Multiple teams reported that Shedeur was bad in meetings and not engaged 10:30 Maturity and focus matter more for quarterbacks 13:45 Cleveland’s quarterback room is a mess 15:15 Shedeur is a good, not great prospect 17:00 Teams don’t want a “celebrity QB” as their backup (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Shadour Sanders falling in the draft to the Cleveland Browns. just a couple of things that I've been ruminating on for the last day. I understand that Dion Sanders worked at multiple TV networks. You worked, I think, at CBS, NFL network. I understand that. A lot of people at that NFL network building know Dion. But it is our job as broadcasters to cut through that and be honest with the audience. And I'm not going to call out anybody individually, but I thought it was really strange

that all the draft coverage that I saw, as everybody was shocked, dismayed that Shadur Sanders had fallen in the draft, nobody said, even mentioned that maybe Dad didn't help him out. I know. I know a lot of people know Deon Sanders and like him. But go back to January. Go back to the Super Bowl week when Deon is on multiple shows. It wasn't until mid-March when Dion probably somebody got into his ear, or maybe he came to his senses, where Dion Sanders said, okay, my son can be drafted by anybody. Until that point, during key evaluation months, go to the Super Bowl. Look at up. I went this morning and looked at clips, found four different shows of Dion Sanders with arrogance, hubris confidence, saying, hey, it's going to be on our terms. There are teams he will not be.

be playing for. Now, timeout. He wasn't directing that at Andy Reed and the Chiefs, Sean McDermott in the Bills. He wasn't directing that at well-run teams with star quarterbacks. He was specifically directing that at the seven or eight teams. And that's about the only teams that need a quarterback, seven or eight teams that needed a quarterback, many of them struggling franchises. And he, in interview, after interview publicly was going out saying, again, with great confidence, I know the game, I know what's behind the curtain. We're not going to play for certain teams. Okay, so Sador's not that great for a prospect. This draft class, quarterback class, is so weak that Cam Ward is in line with Bo Nix. Okay, Bo Nix went to the Broncos. You want to know who was drafted ahead of him?

lots of people, Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels, Drake May, J.J. McCarthy, Michael Pennix. Okay, so Shadur Sanders, as a prospect, is below, and many people believe far below Cam Ward. Many believe he's also behind Jackson Dart, the Giants did. Whether you agree with that or not, this is not a John Elway. This is not an Andrew Luck. This is not even a Caleb Williams prospect where you're going to overlook some stuff. Right? And so just let's go back to this.

Shadur is a prospect. He's going to be an employee of a business. And your dad is saying, there are teams we will not play for. And that's directed at many of the teams that were interested. It wasn't directed at the best teams in the league. And nobody wants to just note that, acknowledge that, mention that. You know, I've said on my show before, quarterback dad has become pageant mom,

where the heart is in the right place, but sometimes they do a disservice to their kids. We saw this with Nico Iamaliava, the quarterback, for Tennessee. Great program. Dad stepped in. Son didn't show up to a spring practice. We're out of here. And he had no market. UCLA has one of the smallest NILs in the Big Ten. The kid reportedly took a pay cut to live in a much more expensive city and go to a much less storied football program. Quarterback dad. So college football sent a message. It wasn't collusion. People weren't on the phone.

And this is not collusion. Remember, only seven or eight teams needed a quarterback. And I could argue only two teams needed a starting quarterback. Tennessee and Pittsburgh, unless the Steelers have some Aaron Rogers deal agreed to. But I understand people being turned off. And then this has to be acknowledged too, as people at these networks doing the draft are not mentioning this. He not only interviewed poorly, Todd McShay on his podcast with a ringer acknowledged. He named a name. Brian Daibald brought him in. Shadour Sanders wasn't prepared on the whiteboard.

When he called him out, Shudor Sanders didn't take it well. So you may not like that there was anonymous coaches saying it was the worst interview ever. I can understand if you don't like that. That feels a little harsh. I get that.

However, that doesn't make it untrue. There are multiple reports now, multiple teams that did not feel that Chadur was engaged, that Chadur made people feel small, it's okay to mention that stuff. So again, the greater the prospect, the more flaws you can have.

And quarterback's different. You know, throughout the years, I talk to a lot of people in the league. Of all the sports I cover, I have far more NFL sources, mostly because that's your favorite sport and it drives a number. But when I talk to scouts and executives,

about football players, they talk about skill and talent and toughness. When I talk to executives about quarterbacks, the conversation changes. It's about leadership and focus, the ability to cognitively get up to speed, read a defense, totally different conversation. Everything's different for quarterbacks. That's why I was so tough on Johnny Mansell and Baker Mayfield on maturity. I didn't care if they were a Mike linebacker, a right guard. When you're a quarterback, the conversation changes. You need a lot of things from a quarterback that you don't need from other players. Maturity, focus, what really matters. You have to love football. I've been critical of Trevor Lawrence, who has said before, football doesn't define me. Well, people are looking for quarterbacks or

football defines them. They want you to be obsessed. They want you to be Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and Patrick Holmes. I'm sorry they do. I didn't make the rules up. So I just thought it's a bit disingenuous to not mention the fact that football dad Dion was setting parameters up directed at the teams that were going to draft his son, which I think was a big turnoff. You know, I've had NFL people say this before. We're not the NBA. We don't do load management. Like, like, it's like, no, no, NBA's got its own culture.

That's not our culture. And college football sent that message to Nico Iamaliava. And I think some of this was, hey, man, Listen, no parameters. You got to interview better. And I didn't think, I said this on the air Friday. I didn't love, you know, your draft room with legendary posted all over it. A little cringy.

The New York giant cleats, a little cringy, not the end of the world, not everything. A little something. But, you know, you have to be, like when people are texting me that are not in football or don't cover football, and they're sending legitimate and very obvious questions about the Dion comments, I think it needs to be talked about, that he did not do his son any favors. Now, Dion did in March finally either acknowledge or infer that his son would be okay being drafted by anybody. But to me, a lot of the damage had been done in January and February, in the Super Bowl week,

and early March. A lot of people were turned off. So I think that's part of it. I think there are messages being sent. It's not collusion. I mean, if Pete Carroll and Mike Tomlin both pass on him, Tomlin needs a starter, and Pete can use a backup. They are both player friendly.

They have both been coaches willing to draft players where there's a little bit of noise around him, and they passed. The Shadur stuff obviously. The Dion stuff obviously turned on. some people. And I've said this, that all this stuff's going to be tricky. You got, you got college quarterbacks now come in, and they've made five or six million dollars. And sometimes, you know, you just got to be humble in those interviews. You may not respect that assistant coach. It may be a team that's not going to draft you, but a little humility. Humility,

too much humility is never a bad thing, especially when you're young and you're a potential employee and you're talking to a potential employer, air on the side of humility is not a bad thing. As far as the Cleveland Browns drafting him, it doesn't bother me. I mean, their quarterback room's a mess. Their takeaway is, hey, Dylan Gabriel, Shadour Sanders, go compete. By the way, when running backs come to camp and they're drafted, there's nine running backs there. I mean, you don't think in camp there's not nine running backs, there's not 11 linebackers, there's not 14 offensive linemen compete. You know, it's rare.

You usually have like three quarterbacks, but if you have five, who cares? Joe Flacco, Deshawn Watson, Kenny Pickett, Dylan Gabriel, Sederer Sanders, who cares? You don't have a star. If you don't have a star, go compete. I mean, that's that every other position is asked to compete. It's okay occasionally if an NFL team says, you know, we're going to draft a couple quarterbacks. Neither are great prospects.

We think they're okay. Peter Schreger brought up something I thought was kind of interesting, former Fox employee now with ESPN and a friend. And I thought Schreger brought up something that was kind of interesting. He said, you know, Dion has worked for, you know, so many people in the media that nobody wanted to come out during the process and be critical of, not Dion, but be critical of Chador because, you know, they know Dion. And said maybe that he was overhyped by all of us in the media. Now, I think it's interesting. I will say this.

I thought he was a good prospect. I can remember when Deshawn Watson came out of Clemson. I didn't like, I didn't think he was that accurate of a quarterback. I thought he's a great athlete, but I said he's a B prospect. You know, he had some A moments. But, you know, a lot of people, I thought Deshawn Watson was a bit overhyped, but he'd be good. I didn't get Mitch Trubisky at all. I didn't get Zach Wilson at all.

I didn't get Daniel Jones at all. I thought Sam Darnal was really, really good. He proved it last year, but it took a while. I liked Shadur Sanders. I think he's a pocket quarterback who moves well enough. I think he's really, really accurate. I think some of the stuff holding the ball too long, you can coach a guy out of that. But he's not a great prospect.

And it's just like in life, if you're not a great, great prospect interviewing for any job, you probably shouldn't set up parameters or, hey, we're going to do it. And it's dad was leading the way on this. But you go do the homework on that. Nobody wanted to talk about that. It's not great. And football is very protective and very tribal about its culture. It does not want to be baseball and give 10-year contracts. Why would it? It's a more popular sport. It doesn't want to be basketball where players run the sport. Load management. It doesn't want to be that. Okay. Football's culture, um, the brotherhood of it, its family, all their marketing, it's family. Um, it matters to them a lot and they have

every right to be prideful and protective of it. You know, they have every right to be prideful. Every sport has a different culture. Golf's got a different one than NASCAR. You know, gymnastics has a different one than college baseball. That's fine. Every company's got a different culture. But football is not going to let dads tell them what to do. And I don't know Dion Sanders. He's got a healthy self-confidence. And in this instance, I do not think he helped his son. And the other thing, just to throw out there that this has been talked about for years, years ago, Bill Parcells was famous for saying he doesn't want to draft celebrity quarterbacks. But I think that's impossible now. They're just that the NIL, the games are on TV.

more games are on TV than ever. So college quarterbacks, if they play for big programs, are going to be a little bit, Arch Manning's a celebrity, and he didn't even start last year. But there is something, there is some truth in this. You don't want your backup quarterback to be a celebrity.

Prime example, Tim Tebow Jets. Mark Sanchez has acknowledged publicly it was a mess. You either believe in Tim Tebow, I didn't, but you either believe in Tim Tebow as a franchise quarterback. You don't bring a celebrity backup in, and the media hover. covers in and all the questions are about Tebow, you don't want that. I mean, I think it's funny that that the media is demanding you have to draft Shrewar Sanders. And then the media, if he's a backup,

is going to descend on an organization. And they're only going to ask about Shudoror Sanders, which is what everybody's trying to avoid. That's why you don't want celebrity quarterbacks. Remember when Cam Newton went to New England for a year, had a decent year with Bill Belichick. Then they draft Mac Jones. And the minute Mac Jones beats out Cam Newton, Belichick lets Cam go. because he doesn't think Cam as a celebrity, you know, a very famous backup quarterback's probably the best thing hovering over Mac Jones. And so if you like Shadour as a starter,

and I thought Pittsburgh should have drafted him in the first round. I wouldn't have had a problem if Cleveland drafted him or Pittsburgh. You know, I think he's a very accurate kid that moves well. I think he's a franchise quarterback. I could be wrong. But him as a backup is really interesting. I mean, made $6 million, NIL. the dad thing, the family name, you bring him into a camp as a backup.

And especially if you have a young quarterback or a situation where, you know, you're trying to make sure and ensure your starting quarterback has confidence. You're devoted to him. You know, he's the guy. You're building him up. You bring in Schuers a backup, and that could be a bit of a mess, right? That's the celebrity backup quarterback. A lot of teams don't want that.

I always used to say you want your backup quarterback to be able to put a baseball hat on and a pair of sunglasses walk through the local mall and nobody knows who he is. That's a perfect backup quarterback, a team guy. So, you know, once Chodor started falling, my take is, wow, this is already going to be interesting. Like, where can he be a backup quarterback? It'd have to be a really secure, older starting quarterback. You know, you're not going to do it if you have a young quarterback.

I thought Seattle might consider it. But Jalen Milro, his temperament and his brand, is more in the way. line with what a backup is. Super humble. Didn't hear from his parents. Um, exceptional athletic ability, not ready to start. Sit behind Sam Darnold for two years. That makes a lot of sense. I think Shadur is ready to start fairly soon, maybe by Thanksgiving. Um, but there's just stuff. There's a little bit of noise and that's tough on backup quarterbacks. So once the teams that need a starter, Tennessee draft at a quarterback and Pittsburgh passed, how many teams needed a starting quarterback. So, listen, I think Shadur, my take, can beat out all these guys in Cleveland.

I mean, Deshawn's done. Kenny Pickett, forget it. He's better than Dylan Gabriel. Flacco probably wins the job until Thanksgiving, but I wouldn't be shocked if Shadur gets a lot of reps later in the season. I hope so. It would be fun to watch. I want to watch him. But, you know, going back to my back, my first point is quarterback dad is becoming pageant

mom where the intentions are good but sometimes I think you hurt the kid and I just think those comments at the Super Bowl and you know we're going to dictate terms and there's places I'm not going to let them go jeesh I don't like that at all I don't like that at all hey guys it's us the Jonas brothers I'm Joe I'm Kevin and I'm Nick and guess what we created our own podcast called hey Jonas we invented a podcast well we didn't invent it We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman helped make you funnier.

This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art.

The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast. for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French name. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lennar Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now and actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed Human.