Friday, Deion Sanders announced that with no exceptions, his son Shedeur Sanders would be the first overall pick, and the Giants would take him. NFL Draft Analyst Luke Easterling isn’t so sure.
In an interview with Valentine’s Views, a New York Giants podcast, Easterling agreed with the anecdote that the Giants would be drafting a quarterback with their pick, regardless of whether it’s the first, second, or third pick.
The difference? He’s not so sure it’ll be Shedeur.
“Right now the Giants are in position to take either Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders,” Easterling said. “From where I’m sitting now they are very much graded in the same range that I had all three of those quarterbacks (McCarthy, Penix, Nix).”
Cam Ward’s name has been thrown around a lot as, after all, he was a top-five Heisman candidate, unlike Sanders. That wasn’t the biggest factor in Easterling’s analysis, though.
Ed Valentine of Valentine’s Views referred to Easterling’s next quote as “The Deion Distraction,” a factor that many NFL GMs and coaches are likely heavily considering.
“If you’re the owner of an NFL franchise and you genuinely want what’s best for your team that means you’ve got to have the guts to take the best player and deal with whatever you might perceive as a distraction,” Easterling said.
“You got to be able to handle all that because if you genuinely evaluate these two quarterbacks at the top and say they end up with the number one pick and they get to have their choice, if you say, man, we really think Shedeur is the better player but we really don’t want to deal with Dieon and what we think might be this sideshow thing or this distraction so we’re going to take Cam Ward instead,”
Despite this likely weighing heavily on many NFL teams, Easterling went on to share his thoughts on any team that would pass on Sanders solely because of his father.
“If you take a player that you don’t think is as good just because you think his dad’s going to be like a distraction that’s weak to me, like that’s scared to me,” said Easterling. “That’s punting the ball on fourth-and-inches from the 39-yard line ... that’s not how I would run an NFL franchise.”
NFL teams clearly have much to think about when it comes to Shedeur, but one thing is for sure: the rest of the world isn’t as confident in his draft placement as his father is.