Deion Sanders right to call out pre-draft interview criticism of Shedeur

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders called out the "lies" surrounding his son Shedeur's pre-draft interview process.

Speaking to NFL Network's Bucky Brooks, Sanders addressed criticism of his son's pre-draft interviews. In early March, ESPN's Josina Anderson reported an anonymous NFL quarterback coach whose team had a top seven draft pick called out the young passer for seeming "arrogant" and "disconnected" during his interview.

When asked about the criticisms, Sanders replied "Now, that was a lie."

“Shedeur has been built for this, man,” Deion said, addressing the pre-draft interview process. “We’ve done this. We got records, we got tape, we’ve got factual evidence of Shedeur at 10 to 12 years old. ‘Tell me about this.’ ‘Tell me about that.’ ‘How do you feel as a kid?’ We’ve practiced and rehearsed this stuff so he’s well-poised in front of the camera, as you just saw, as the world has seen for a multitude of years.”

Coach Prime then went on the offensive, saying he'd call out the coach who criticized Shedeur.

“The lies, that’s gonna be that,” Deion said. “But we’re great with adversity. We’ve always been through adversity. We’ve always been challenged with adversity and the nay-saying and the doubting. He is built for that. He’s the most qualified young man that plays that position that’s built for that, and to be in front of the lights and to continuously shine.

“We like to call that stuff out, though,” Deion continued, “I know who it is. You’re going to make me call him out. You know what team he’s at, all right? You gotta understand it. Don’t make me pull behind the curtains and step in that thing.”

This is how the pre-draft process goes for the vast majority of quarterback prospects. Anonymous reports, both positive and negative, flood the media landscape in the hopes of driving players' stocks up or down, depending on what that particular team wants.

And Sanders is far from a perfect prospect. He's exactly the kind of prospect whose stock is prone to outside manipulation, because there are questions about his on-field prowess. And given his reputation and the name on the back of his jersey, playing off the stereotypes about his confidence and feeding into already existing concerns that that confidence has a tendency to skew into arrogance.

And Deion is right to call it out. The criticisms coming for his son aren't centered around performance or concerns about his play, which would be justified given the tape that's out there. Instead, they're focused on more nebulous things, the kind of insidious stuff that can turn a fan base against a quarterback before he's even set foot on the field.

Deion had to deal with similar criticisms throughout his college and NFL career. Shedeur isn't his father, but he's not Nathan Peterman, either. And the points Deion is fighting against are exactly the kind of NFL Draft analysis that has no place in the modern game at this point.

It remains to be seen whether Shedeur will be the kind of quarterback in the NFL his dad clearly thinks he can be, but his Draft stock will remain one of the most closely watched stories until he's off the board.

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