CLEVELAND, Ohio — Deion Sanders admitted in a podcast with fellow former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel Sr. that he was “hurt” by pre-draft criticism of his son Shedeur Sanders, and that some of it was “foolish.”
Shedeur tumbled from an original first-round projection to the fifth round, where the Browns traded up to No. 144 to draft him. He’s currently in a four-way competition for the starting job with Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco and third-round pick Dillon Gabriel, but served as the fourth-team QB in the lone organized team activities practice open to the media last week.
“It did hurt,” Deion said on Samuel’s ‘Say What Needs to be Said’ podcast. “But the Bible says God uses the foolish things to confound the wise. There was some foolish stuff that went on, but that gave them something that they needed. Like that edge that Tom [Brady] had, it gave them the edge that you had, it gave them the edge that I have. Folks said we weren’t gonna be nothing. But we had to prove that. It gave them the edge that they needed. Both of them.”
One anonymous source said Sanders was “brash and arrogant” in his interviews, according to Josina Anderson, and one longtime NFL assistant told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero said his time with Sanders was “the worst formal interview I’ve ever been in in my life. He’s so entitled. He takes unnecessary sacks. He never plays on time. He has horrible body language. He blames teammates. ... But the biggest thing is, he’s not that good.”
Deion took particular exception to the narrative that Shedeur wasn’t prepared for interviews and private meetings.
“You’re not going to catch (Shedeur) in no foolery, no mess, you’re not going to do that, whatsoever,” Deion said. “So when you sit up there and say something like he went in a meeting unprepared, like dude, Shedeur Sanders? Who’s had six different coordinators? Who has still functioned and leveled up every time we brought somebody new in? You’re going to tell me he had on headphones?
“Anybody who knows my son understands he’s a professional. He’s going into a meeting with headphones on? C’mon, man.”
Sanders noted that “all you have to do is just sit back and listen, but people don’t want to do that,” Deion said. “They want to create these narratives and create these stories and then attach them to a kid that ain’t ever done anything wrong.”
The Browns, for their part, had no issues with Sanders’ attitude or personality during the pre-draft process, and have praised his demeanor and work ethic in rookie minicamp and the voluntary offseason program.
Jedrick Wills Jr. could miss the 2025 season after another knee procedure
Former Browns left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. could sit out the 2025 season after he’s believed to have undergone another procedure on his right knee. Jordan Schultz of Fox Sport first reported the Wills might have to miss all or most of the season.
The knee, in which Wills had a torn MCL repaired in November of 2023, bothered him all last season and was placed on injured reserve for the final five games. The injury limited him to 13 games over the past two seasons, and prevented him from trying to live up to his No. 10 overall status from the 2020 draft.
Wills, who hit the market in March, hoped to recover from the knee injury this offseason and sign with one of the multiple teams that have shown interest. But the knee injury lingered, and he had to address it. Now, his 2025 season is in jeopardy, and it remains to be seen how long it will take him to resume his career, if he can at all.
The unfortunate thing for Wills is that he showed flashes of his top 10 pedigree when healthy, but struggled with injuries throughout his career, beginning with an ankle injury in 2020 the hampered his season.
In his eight games in 2023, Wills climbed to No. 8 in ESPN’s pass-block win rankings at 92%, and was starting to hit his stride.
The Browns had left the door open to possibly re-sign Wills as a swing tackle, but the knee injury precluded it.
Joel Bitonio on left tackle Dawand Jones
Bitonio, who’s happy to be back after contemplating retirement, gave a glowing review of left Dawand Jones, who’s coming off a broken fibula.
“I think he’s lost some weight,” Bitonio said. “I think he’s focused, he’s rehabbed, he was pretty much here all offseason rehabbing. I think he’s focused and I think he knows, alright, you’re going to play left tackle this year. So he can just work at it, focus at it. But he’s ready to take a step and I know you get close to those contract years and stuff and I think he wants to put a healthy season together and if he stays healthy and can pass pro and do the things that he can do, it’ll be good for him.”
Kevin Stefanski on no new playoff seeding vote
Stefanski is happy that the Lions playoff seeding proposal - by record instead of division — didn’t gain traction and was withdrawn at the recent NFL owners’ meeting.
“I understand both sides of that argument, but I think winning your division really should be the primary goal of every team,” he said. “And it should mean something where you get to host a playoff game. I understand some of the things that were brought up at the league meetings, we’ll see if that gets revisited next year, which I would assume it does. We know our division, we know how tough it is. We beat up on each other and we feel like there should be something, some type of reward for that.”
Would he be opposed to reseeding after the first round?
“I would love to see a little bit more of the information on that,” he said. “I think that’s something that will come up next season in the owners meetings and the league meetings as they talk about those things. Those are the type of discussions we have not had yet. I’ve seen that proposal, but we have not discussed that one at length.”
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