Last month, Deion Sanders rejected the idea of the Browns trading defensive end Myles Garrett. Now that the trade has happened, Deion is singing a different tune.
“They got a killer on defense, I’m tired of y’all talking about trading him and getting rid of him,” Sanders told Garrett Bush before the trade. “That don’t make no sense to me. That’s a once in a lifetime man. That’s a once in a lifetime man that you don’t see no more. I don’t get rid of that. Unless I could get your mama, daddy, your uncle, cousins, and everybody in a trade for that. Because that’s a grown man. That’s a winner. That’s a winner.”
Now that Garrett was traded, Deion deferred to the decision.
“I’m happy with Mr. [Andrew] Berry, the G.M., and what he’s doing, I’m not going to question his direction of what he’s bringing to the table,” Sanders recently told D.J. Saddiqi of Covers.com as part of a media tour for Deion’s Depend partnership. “I’m not there, so I don’t know all the intangibles that provoked that trade. I’m happy with what they got, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.”
Apparently, Deion considers Jared Verse and a first-, second-, and third-round pick to equate to “your mama, daddy, your uncle, cousins, and everybody.” At least we now know how to calibrate that specific metric.
With quarterback Brendan Sorsby applying for the supplemental draft (and assuming the NFL lets him in), the clock is already ticking on the various things that need to be done before a team will be sufficiently comfortable to spend a 2027 draft pick early.
Appearing on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, Sorsby’s agent, Ron Slavin, addressed the mechanics of the truncated pre-draft process.
“The great thing about him being from Dallas is it’s the easiest place to get to,” Slavin said. “We obviously have all the facilities that he needs to work out in and do all the things he needs to do, and then we put together a Pro Day, and teams can come and meet with him here. And I’m still gonna have the discussion, but I’ll probably have Dr. [Daniel] Cooper do his physical, and then we can distribute the information to all 32 teams. But it’s a short window, but we’ll make it happen just because it’s really easy to make things efficient in Dallas.”
Beyond shepherding Sorsby through the pre-supplemental draft process, Slavin also will be advocating for his client. And while his bias when it comes to saying good things about Sorsby is obvious and predictable, it’s still interesting to see what Slavin had to say when given the space to sing Sorsby’s praises.
“If you go [by] a human being, he’s the first overall pick,” Slavin said. “He’s a great kid. There’s nothing that you’re ever going to have to worry about him off the field. The apps on his phones and all that’s been taken care of, and I really don’t think it’s gonna be an issue moving forward. I don’t think he’s got that type of personality.
“And on the field, I mean he’s, like I said, he’s 6'3, 235 [pounds]. He’s — I believe, if we had him run a 40, he’s gonna run in the 4.4s. And his arm talent is ridiculous. He can throw from all the different arm angles. And if you watch his games against TCU and some others, I mean, he’s running away from DBs who ran in the 4.5s.
“So he’s an elite athlete. He was a late bloomer. You know, I think he’s only gonna get better because, again, when you’re 5'3" as a sophomore in high school and grow 12 inches, you’re kind of like a baby giraffe for a while, and then once you settle into your body and you settle into your physical traits, you just get better and better.
“I grew up in Wisconsin, and, you know, I watched Brett Favre for years, and I think his personality and his moxie is a lot of Brett Favre. And then I think the way his arm angles are and some of the things he can do arm-talent wise is, you know, people would say, ‘Oh, this is an agent talking,’ but no, I think I’m a pretty good evaluator. It’s the reason I have a bunch of guys in the league. He’s a [Patrick] Mahomes, Josh Allen-type of arm angle, arm talent.”
None of that means Sorsby will become a franchise quarterback. But the possibility that Sorsby could develop into a great quarterback should compel every team that doesn’t have a long-term answer in place to put in the effort to complete a full and complete evaluation as to how a quarterback who never played for Texas Tech possibly will compare, over time, to the bar set by the three-time Super Bowl-winner who did.
How far can Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders go? In the opinion of his father, it depends on whether the rest of the team can take him there.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders, whose recent media tour for Depend included a visit with D.J. Siddiqi of Covers.com, explained the importance of having help when discussing Shedeur’s performance as a rookie in Cleveland.
“I would have wanted him to perform a little better, but that’s not just an individual thing, that’s a team thing,” Sanders said. “A quarterback needs help tremendously from the offensive line, from the receivers, from the running game, from the coordinators as well. It’s not just a singular thing, like a defensive back. I don’t care what the pass rush is, [the DB] has got to do his job. It’s a little different with a quarterback. He needs several things to go right for him to be successful.”
He’s right, but there’s a fine line between acknowledging the importance of having help around the quarterback and making excuses. Yes, others have to do their jobs. The quarterback does, too.
The reality in football, as Donovan McNabb once said, is that the quarterback gets too much credit for wins and too much blame for losses. In Cleveland, it’s hardly a coincidence that most of the bad seasons since the team returned to the NFL in 1999 featured less-than-ideal quarterback play.
Still, there’s hope for the Browns if Shedeur wins the starting job over Deshaun Watson. Last year, Shedeur started seven games, winning three and losing four. In the 10 games he didn’t start, the Browns went 2-8.
During a Thursday interview with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, agent Ron Slavin said the University of Cincinnati knew about quarterback Brendan Sorsby’s gambling habits. The claim has prompted a denial by Cincinnati.
“They didn’t do anything wrong here,” Slavin said regarding Texas Tech. “If anybody should be questioned or to catch some heat, it should be Cincinnati because they knew for two years and never said anything and didn’t do anything about it. So that’s the part of the story that gets lost.”
The comment wasn’t lost on Cincinnati.
“We will reiterate what we have said before,” the school said in a statement. “All of our student-athletes receive extensive gambling education multiple times throughout the year, and we would never knowingly play an athlete who violated NCAA sports wagering regulations. If we ever became aware of impermissible wagering, we would report to the NCAA and comply with sanctions.”
It’s not the first skirmish when it comes to the Bearcats and their former starting quarterback. Cincinnati sued Sorsby for $1 million after he transferred to Texas Tech.
In the end, Texas Tech never played Sorsby in a game. Sorsby spent two years at Cincinnati after violating the NCAA’s gambling rule, repeatedly. If Cincinnati knew and did nothing, that would be a problem.
At a time when the NCAA has little bite when it comes to the rules regarding players, it should at least be barking around the question of whether Cincinnati knew about Sorsby’s gambling and failed to do anything about it.
With quarterback Brendan Sorsby applying for the supplemental draft, the first question is whether the NFL will grant his request. The next question is whether the NFL will suspend him after he’s drafted.
As explained on Tuesday, the NFL’s decision to not suspend Patriots receiver Kayshon Boutte should help Sorsby’s cause.
In 2011, the NFL suspended former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor for five games after he was taken in the supplemental draft, mirroring a pending five-game NCAA suspension. Appearing Wednesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, agent Ron Slavin was asked whether the NFL may try to do to Sorsby what it did to Pryor.
“No, because there’s a precedent set with the Boutte kid out of LSU, where he had gambling and when he got to the NFL . . . he didn’t get any suspension or sit out at all,” Slavin said. “So, I think the precedent’s been set there. I mean, those conversations will still be had, but I don’t think you can really just make up rules as you go. Once you set a precedent, that’s what it is.”
In theory, Slavin is right. In practice, well, the NFL has a bit of a reputation for making up rules as it goes.
There’s a difference between Boutte and Sorsby that, on the surface, is irrelevant. But it could cause the league to reach a different outcome.
In Boutte’s case, his gambling addiction, underage betting, and wagers placed on LSU games while playing for LSU didn’t come to light until after Boutte’s rookie season with the Patriots had ended. For Sorsby, it’s all out in the open as he enters the league, after losing his NCAA eligibility.
As to Boutte, a suspension would have put a spotlight on the NFL’s failure to know about his betting before he entered pro football. As to Sorsby, everyone knows. It has become a major story. It will be harder for the NFL to look the other way.
It shouldn’t matter. The Boutte precedent should guide the Sorsby decision. The NFL, however, prefers to make decisions on a case-by-case basis, without past outcomes or prior reasoning tying its hands in a given situation.
For now, many within the league are wondering what the NFL will do. Some believe Commissioner Roger Goodell will come up with a way to impose a sanction on Sorsby, citing his underage betting, his violation of NCAA rules, and/or the wagers placed on his own team while at Indiana.
For a suspension imposed after Sorsby is drafted, the NFLPA would file a grievance and the Boutte argument would be made. At the end of the day, however, Article 46, Section 1(a) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement gives the Commissioner final say over what likely would be an “integrity of the game” suspension.
Put simply, the Commissioner will be free to ignore the Boutte precedent in reaching a decision that, per the CBA, will be final and binding.
