Louis Riddick highlights Shedeur Sanders’ ability to handle criticism after watching father Deion

Quarterback prospect Shedeur Sanders has yet to take a snap in the NFL. Still, leading into the NFL Draft, he’s already faced extensive criticism for both his play on the field and the perception of who he is as a player, regardless of how fair that has been or not.

Learning to handle this criticism is going to be massive for Sanders. It’s something that ESPN’s Louis Riddick believes he’s equipped to handle, though, and that’s because of his father, Deion Sanders. Interestingly enough, as Riddick explained on Get Up, it’s also criticism that stems from people’s attitudes toward him.

“Shedeur, in particular, is uniquely equipped to handle the media firestorm that’s going to surround him,” Louis Riddick said. “A lot of it is going to be directed at him simply because of what his last name is, and how big and larger than life his father is. A lot of it is going to trickle down to him, but Deion’s telling you you’re wasting your time because he is uniquely qualified to and he has been schooled to deal with the kind of nonsense that’s going to come his way.”

As a football player, Shedeur Sanders made a name for himself in college both for his talent and leadership. He would follow his father from Jackson State to Colorado. In the two seasons he ended up spending at Colorado, he completed 71.8 percent of his passes for 7,364 yards and 64 touchdowns to 13 interceptions.

“One of the things that Deion will tell you when you go out there and you go talk to him, just from a football standpoint, and ask him to describe the makeup of Shedeur,” Riddick said. “He’ll tell you that all his life this young man has been wise and mature beyond his years. That he’s someone who looks out for other people. Always on the lookout for other people. Someone who, quite honestly, is a hell of a leader. Now, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t make mistakes. That doesn’t mean that he’s not going to continue to grow and become better in terms of lifting other people up, but he will tell you he can handle any environment that he is going to go into because Deion has been in just about any environment imaginable from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.”

As is often the case, Deion Sanders has provided a mentorship to Shedeur throughout the years. Thanks to his own experiences, Riddick feels that Shedeur should be ready for anything at the next level.

“Everything hasn’t always been great for Deion throughout his career, remember now. He has gone through a total transformation from the guy who invented primetime, who took defensive backs and raised the game to a whole new level, to being at the depths of his own personal demons that he was dealing with to now coming back and being larger than life again. He’s been through the entire circle, the entire washing machine. There’s nothing his kids have not been talked to about and once they hit the ground running,” Riddick said. “And Shedeur hits the ground running, it’s going to be off to the races for this young man.”

There have been extensive issues taken with Shedeur Sanders in the leadup to the NFL Draft. In some cases, it’s for his play on the field, as he’s often taken criticism for his arm strength and pocket presence. On top of that, analyst Todd McShay recently shared that multiple NFL teams left their meetings with Sheduer feeling that he didn’t care what they thought of him. Despite that, Riddick believes much of that comes from personal biases against Deion.

“There are personal biases, though, that scouts have, that general managers have against his family overall because of how larger than life Deion is. Some people have an ability to separate the personal feelings from the job at hand, which is to evaluate a player and determine whether he fits your organization. Some people don’t. The personal kind of creeps into it because they just don’t maybe like his father. They don’t like the bravado, they don’t like the brashness, they don’t like the way he talks, the way he dresses, the way he carries himself,” Riddick said.

“Some people let that affect them to the point where it affects their ability to do the job, which is, ‘Can this guy help us win football games?’ That’s what we’re talking about with Shedeur Sanders. So, what winds up happening is when you don’t like someone personally you will wind up talking about some of the deficiencies they have from a pure quarterbacking standpoint to a degree that is really unwarranted.”

None of that is to say that all of that criticism is completely unwarranted. However, Riddick wanted to emphasize that it’s blown out of proportion by personal biases.

“There is a lot of criticism about he doesn’t have the biggest arm, he’s not a great athlete, he took too many sacks,” Riddick said. “And you’re sitting there going, ‘I don’t see any issues with Shedeur Sanders’ arm and his athleticism is just fine.’ He can win from the pocket as well as anybody in the draft. There isn’t that big a gap between him and Cam Ward from an athletic standpoint. There just isn’t.”

As it stands, Sanders is still expected to be a high draft pick. In his latest mock draft, Mel Kiper has him going third overall to the New York Giants. Daniel Jeremiah, in his own mock draft, agreed with that placement for Sanders.