Shedeur Sanders is going to be one of the top quarterbacks taken in the 2025 NFL draft. We have no idea how early he'll be drafted or which team will take him, but according to ESPN's Louis Riddick, he's a "top half of the first round player."

Riddick appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday and explained why Sanders was experiencing some negativity heading into the draft. Riddick thinks that the real problem is Sheduer Sanders's father. Not that Deion is doing anything wrong, but that people are just biased against him because of how confident and flashy he's always been. And that's an excuse to assume the same about his son.

"People have been at this game, so to speak, of trying to talk certain prospects down for years," said Riddick. "Deion is a lightning rod. That's where it starts. It doesn't even start with Sheduer. This starts with his father and it trickles down to him. And it starts with his father. It's been that way since I played with Deion back in 1992 in Atlanta. People don't like flashy guys like that who can back it up. They just don't. They do't like people who are strong, confident. It's funny we love it but iwth some people we don't love it. With Deion, he's always been a polarizing player to the people who don't know him. If you know him personally you would be like I get it and I love it. Give me more of it. With Sheduer, he has some of his father in him. How could he not? He's the man's son. So a lot of it comes from who he is and what his last name is."

The good news is that the draft is just six short weeks away so there is plenty of time for some NFL front offices to leak some glowing things about Sanders.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ESPN's Louis Riddick Shares Theory on Negative Shedeur Sanders Coverage After Combine.