Deion Sanders doesn't hold back on Shedeur's draft slide a year later originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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Just a shade over a year ago, current Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders experienced the greatest NFL Draft slide in draft history. Prospects slide all the time, but never in the history of the draft has someone been projected in the top 10 and selected four rounds later.
Throughout the Well Off Media videos posted, a weight on Deion Sanders seemed obvious. Unknown to most fans at the time, the elder Sanders was fighting bladder cancer as he watched his 'kids' not named Travis Hunter slide. Fans saw a very quiet, reserved and often pacing Coach Prime.
The interviewer for Sanders' first public comments with Cleveland media was intentional. Objectively, Garrett Bush, was always going to be first. The Cleveland sports media landscape is dicey and has been for decades. Mary Kay Cabot and Tony Grossi have become villains in the larger discourse over Shedeur in the NFL. Most Cleveland shows include at least one co-host that Coach Prime was not going to entertain.
Like Coach Prime, Bush is a fan of receipts and has even begun a video series where he 'checks' his fellow Cleveland media colleagues. When Coach Prime spoke on this topic, it was always destined to be with “GBush”.
The Coach Prime exclusive interview with Garrett Bush
While most members of the media in Cleveland were leaning into the slide and running just about every pre-draft narrative, GBush did not. When mandatory OTAs and Training Camp began, GBush was in Berea, doing his own reporting on Shedeur Sanders. It was evident in the first quote that Sanders was paying attention.
"This is well overdue,” Sanders started. “I wanted to thank you for standing up when everyone else chose to sit. I want to thank you for being the brother that you are. Because there's a relationship and trust, and I don't trust everybody."
Coach Prime revealed pride in how Shedeur handled the draft situation. Sanders reminded the viewers that he worked in sports media before he began his coaching journey. "I know how this stuff works. So, a lot of the things that were said and noted, my brother we already knew what time it was. But I'm proud of him as a man."
Prime counters pre-draft narratives
Prime wasted no time addressing the 'silver spoon' narrative. Prime explained how he moved the kids to the other side of Dallas so they would see the other side of life. "I wanted them to have that ingredient in them when times got rough like they did, they would know how to respond" Deion said. "He didn't have a silver spoon, he had access to platinum spoons, but we didn't' use them."
Sanders directly addressed the pre-draft narratives calling them flat out, "a lie". Sanders even channeled his inner Al Pacino. All but suggesting while looking into the camera, I know it was you Fredo.
"All that stuff was a lie man. Now that stuff bothered me. It didn't bother him, but it bothered me. Because I knew where it came from. But we took the high road. I never said where it came from. When people were talking in the Cleveland media and saying this and saying that we just sat back and laughed. We know exactly where it comes from.
Sanders circled back to the draft narratives claiming Shedeur was always destined for the NFL. "When he was seven years old, he was checking off, putting us in the right situation. He's a savant when it comes to that. So, hearing the bull junk we heard, c'mon dawg. That bothered me, because you can't make my son out to be some dumb n----. With all the tutelage and all the persons in his life. Don't do that."
Prime on the Cleveland Front Office
Bush segued to Cleveland and began to paint the picture of how bad it's been. Sanders, interjected, claiming the Browns have had some dawgs. Prime is a fan of Baker Mayfield. He didn't stop there. "You've had some killers out there wide, so you've had it. I don't want to take a shot at anybody, but it's been some players who have been phenomenal. It's been there, you just gotta put it together."
Deion Sanders is a huge fan of Andrew Berry. "I call him Mr. Berry; he's done a phenomenal job acquiring talent. Mr. Andrew Berry, I love his thought process man. Sanders went onto say, "And I love the way he navigates in the midst of a storm. Did you care to look at that rookie class last season? The rookie class this season? They're building something that is tremendous. Of course they need stability at the quarterback position. Of course they need stability on the offensive line. Everything else to me, GOT IT."
Sanders weighed in on the other big offseason narrative of trading Myles Garrett. An annual tradition at this point. Sanders is not a fan of that discourse. "They got a killa on defense. I'm tired of y'all talking about trading him. That don't make no sense to me. That is a once in a lifetime man, that you don't see anymore."
Sanders then said the thing most fans were likely waiting to hear. The truth will come out about the draft. "It's not gonna be a 30 for 30. It's gonna be a 2-for-100. Keeping it 100 for 2 and telling what really happened.
Shilo Sanders vs Mary Kay Cabot
Unprompted, Sanders addressed the back and forth between his son Shilo Sanders and 40-year Cleveland beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot. "I know Shilo had an altercation where he spoke up for his brother, but you gotta understand that's his brother. God bless Mary Kay's soul, but that's his brother. She said something, he said something."
Prime on Todd Monken
Bush transitioned to new coach Todd Monken. Referencing his straight shooter mentality and how he adapts his offense to fit the players he has instead of forcing players into a specific system. Another man, Sanders is a big fan of. "God, I love him! Coach Monken is gonna make it do what it does."
Sanders revealed that he has an upcoming trip to Cleveland to meet with Todd Monken. There was a veiled shot at the previous head coach based on what is likely to happen soon. "As a coach, not a Dad, I'll tell him a few things about how to get Grown (Shedeur) going. That was not asked of me... last season."
"When you start to see him getting on receivers and really start to be a little more vocal there, you know he's feelin' it." Shedeur never looked "Colorado comfortable" in the 2025 season. That's not to give him a pass, but there is a version of Shedeur that commands and is not afraid to get in the face of his teammates. That Shedeur has not been seen in the NFL yet.
Prime never wanted to follow Shedeur to the NFL
One of the many narratives reintroduced was Coach Prime to the NFL. He has stated repeatedly that he has no interest in coaching in the NFL. Sanders seemed to believe there were coaches afraid Prime would take their job if they drafted Shedeur.
"I guarantee you if you put GMs on a lie detector and ask that question, that machine's gonna bungy jump," Sanders declared. "God got him right where he wants him man and right in the position he wants. So, I'm happy man. I really like Cleveland. I really like Cleveland for him, I really do."
Bush took that and ran with it, bringing up the overwhelming volume of fans that suggested the Browns should trade Shedeur in his rookie season. No high-profile rookie quarterback ever gets traded in year one. Shedeur not starting as soon as physically possible did not change that fact one iota. That idea was always ridiculous at best.
Keeping it to the NFL, Sanders made a first public admission. "Ima tell you this and I've never told anybody this publicly. That was the first time in my life that I couldn't fix it. I've always been able to fix it, for all my kids. With all that bull junk going on and I couldn't fix it. And he wanted me to fix it. I didn't have the power to fix it. And that hurt. It felt like I wasn't there for my son."
Bush closed out the interview with a question regarding what's more important, success or influence? His answer was two-fold.
"At Colorado I wanna win. I want to win it all. It ain't no negotiating, no side stepping. That's my No. 1 goal. Now, when it comes to my son, I'm putting my Daddy hat on. He has already surpassed me with influence. Demographically, from eight years old all the way to my fans that may be 70, he has their eyes and ears. They want to see him succeed, some want to see him fail, but either way they want something.”
Sanders provided one final reveal. Referring to Dominq Ponder who passed away tragically this year, Prime discovered that Shedeur texts Ponder's mother every single day. "You know Shedeur calls the mother every day. She told me that. Not him. He doesn't talk like that. He moves like his Daddy. That's why all the bull junk that was said a year ago, c'mon man. And the bad thing about it my brother, we kept quiet, and we know where it came from."
You can watch the entire Coach Prime interview via the Barbershop YouTube channel.
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