After drafting Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round, Browns General Manager Andrew Berry was asked at a press conference whether the big personality and big platform of Sanders’ father, Deion Sanders, had anything to do with Shedeur falling to the fifth round. Berry said he doesn’t know whether Deion played a part in other teams’ evaluations of Shedeur or not.
“I can’t say if that was a factor or not for other teams, but that was not a significant factor for us,” Berry said.
Deion not being a “significant” factor is not the same as him not being a factor at all, and it is fair to ask whether some NFL coaches and GMs would have preferred not to have the distraction of Deion Sanders potentially weighing in on the way Shedeur was developing.