Shedeur Sanders is falling in NFL Draft because of his father, Stephen A. Smith says

Thirty-one teams made first-round selections on Thursday night (the Houston Texans traded back), and none of them selected Shedeur Sanders.

But then night two came, and more of the same occurred. In fact, the Colorado quarterback, who was once expected to potentially go in the top-five, was not even one of the top five QBs selected.

Three more quarterbacks, Tyler Shough, Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel, were all selected on Friday; Shough at 40 to the Saints, Milroe to the Seahawks at 92, and Gabriel going to Cleveland at 95.

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Over recent days, reports have been tough on Sanders, with one assistant coach saying he was "entitled" and simply "not that good," while adding his formal interview was "the worst."

ESPN's Dan Orlovsky pointed out some plays that need fixing ahead of the NFL Draft, but his colleague, Stephen A. Smith, doesn't think Sanders fell because of football reasons at all.

"I believe that the biggest issue in all of this was Primetime Deion Sanders and the thought of having to deal with him," Smith said on Friday's "First Take," hours before the second round even began.

"It’s hard for me to sit here today and to watch a dude that was once projected to be one of the top two picks potentially in the draft to drop completely out of the first round and to ignore all those reports that had come out about him leading into the draft."

Sanders' father, of course, has been rather vocal, on top of plenty of NFL rumors, over his coaching days.

"If you think that I’m going to sit here and assume that that was strictly an evaluation about his football skills alone that led to him falling out the entire first round without his father having an impact, I don’t buy that," Smith continued.

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Sanders, at one point, was considered to be the 1B to Cam Ward’s 1A. Ward separated himself and went first overall to the Tennessee Titans.

But, in recent days, it was becoming apparent that teams did not love Sanders – the Raiders took Ashton Jeanty at six, and the Saints went with Kelvin Banks Jr. at nine, officially starting the Sanders fall.

All eyes were on the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 21. But as no one traded up in front of them, the Steelers’ selection came and went without a QB – they opted for Derrick Harmon.

The New York Giants traded back into the first round, but they opted for Jaxson Dart instead.

And then, rounds two and three happened.

The former University of Colorado star admitted that he and his family "did not expect" what occurred on Thursday night, in footage posted by his brother, Deion Jr.

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"We all didn't expect this, of course, but I feel like with God, anything possible, everything possible. I don't feel like this happened for no reason. All of this is, of course, fuel to the fire. Under no circumstances did we all know this was going to happen, but we understand we on to bigger and better things," the quarterback said. 

"Tomorrow's the day. We going to be happy regardless. Legendary."

Tomorrow was not the day, and if Saturday isn't it, then perhaps the NFL world will be left speechless.

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