PROJECTED: Round 1-2
The Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award winner and second-team AP All-American QB as a senior last fall, Sanders threw a school-record 64 touchdown passes over two seasons while playing for his Pro Football Hall of Fame father, Deion, in Boulder after they spent a couple years together at FCS Jackson State. His freewheeling play style and unique pedigree make him one of the most fascinating — and polarizing — evaluations in the entire draft. “Shedeur is a really, really talented passer,” an NFC quarterbacks coach said. “Not elite arm strength, but I don’t think it’s anything that will hinder you. Obviously, he’s been working with Pat (Shurmur, a longtime NFL coach who’s currently Colorado’s offensive coordinator), so he knows some NFL stuff. He’ll have to learn to get the ball out and to play with the timing you need to play in this league. That’s everything it really comes down to.” Said an NFC assistant coach: “He’s got ability to throw to all three levels. He’s good on the ball-out, quick passing game. Can move around. Tough as all get out. He’ll take hits and just hop up and it doesn’t really faze him. That’s impressive. There’s obviously things he needs to improve on, just working progressions. You’ve got Travis Hunter out there; it’s not like you have to work a ton of progressions. And then he took a lot of sacks. Obviously, the line wasn’t outstanding, but they weren’t always the line’s fault, either. He’s hanging on to the ball. He’s not throwing the ball away for one reason or another. He’s got a chance to be good. There’s things there that’s got to improve. I think he can do it.”
In 50 college starts (26 at Jackson State, 24 at Colorado), Sanders completed 70.1 percent of his passes for 14,347 yards and 134 touchdowns with 27 interceptions. Ten of those interceptions came last season, when he also led the FBS with a 74 percent completion rate while ranking second with 353 completions and 37 touchdown passes — a school record, as were his 4,134 passing yards. “If you look at just ‘wow’ throws, he’s got probably the best collection of those over the whole entire crop,” an NFC executive said. “It’s just the other stuff. It’s the ability to do stuff from structure, in the pocket, checkdowns, the easy gimmes. But if you want to just isolate the high level, high degree of difficulties, then to me, there’s a difference between him and the other guys.” A Colorado program that was 1-11 in 2022 improved to 4-8 and 9-4 in Sanders’ two seasons under center (though the Buffaloes were 1-7 against ranked opponents in that span). Sanders ran for 17 TDs over four college seasons. But more often than not, he was scrambling to throw, not run. “His college tape looked like Caleb Williams without the elite physical arm talent,” an NFC coordinator said. “I’m sorry: You can’t play that game at this level. So, you’ve got to be banking on him making a jump from a decision-making, in-the-pocket, on-time, under-pressure [perspective], where you don’t have evidence of that on tape. That, to me, is why people are going to be nervous about him. He’s not going to extend plays the way he did at Colorado. Nobody does, unless you’re Lamar (Jackson), Josh Allen, Kyler (Murray). Those guys are elite athletes. He’s not. So, it’s going to be a very different game he’s asked to play. I’m not saying he can’t do it. But that’s where the hesitation is going to come into play.”
Sanders’ size (6-1 1/2, 212) and surprisingly limited athletic profile (given his potential genetic advantages) help explain why some scouts and coaches don’t have a first-round grade on him. “If somebody’s open, he’s going to hit it. So you don’t want to discredit how accurate he is,” another NFC coordinator said. “There’s just a lack of a ton of juice in his arm. He’s not incredibly athletic. He does hold on to the ball. The offense is really hard to judge what they’re doing offensively and what he’s being told from a read standpoint, so you can’t totally kill him for that. I see him as more of a backup that, shoot, maybe he can develop into a fringe starter.” Said an AFC quarterbacks coach: “I think he needs to be in a specific system that caters to his skill set, which is getting the ball out quickly. I think he’s got plenty of arm in the short to intermediate parts of the field; he generates pretty good zip. It kind of dies on him down the field. If you can get him to operate in the same mold that you used to see (Drew) Brees operate, which is being able to process what’s happening post-snap and get the ball out quickly and get the ball to the right guys in a timing manner, I think that’s the best approach with him.” One AFC scout compared Sanders to Geno Smith with a little less arm. “There are some flashes of this kid having some understanding of the game, coverages, which gives you some hope.” the scout said. “The character stuff is also something that factors. From what I’ve seen and East-West Shrine and combine, there’s definitely some entitlement and special treatment that he expects. There might be some growth with that. The NFL’s still a meritocracy and you have to come in and earn it. It’s a man’s league, and he’s going to have to do it on his own.”
When it comes to Sanders’ makeup, he’s a one-of-one case study in many ways. Not many draft prospects grow up as the son of one of the greatest and highest-profile athletes of his generation. Even fewer have been coached almost exclusively by their legendary father; Deion was also Shedeur’s offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian in Texas before taking the head-coaching job at Jackson State (and flipping his son’s original commitment to Florida Atlantic). “The dude’s only played for his dad. When things go wrong, it’s not his fault. He takes a sack, he blames the O-line,” an AFC coordinator said. “He can make the throws. He’s got good accuracy. But does he lock on No. 1 and home in on him? And does the offense tailor for him to read it out?” Deion Sanders hasn’t been shy about using social media and press conferences to fire back at any real or perceived slights he has heard about Shedeur during the pre-draft process. “You can’t have your dad saying, ‘I’m going to come put a quarterback coach on blast who said you were arrogant.’ So, he can’t be criticized?” a veteran NFC executive said. “It seems like his [teammates] like him. They back him, even with all the limelight stuff and going in a different car to the game. It seems like they back him more.”
One NFC scouting director who has done extensive background work on Sanders summarized it this way: “When you hear all the anecdotal stories about the person, it’s not that he’s a bad kid. He has been so insulated. It’s going to be a culture shock when he really learns how a locker room really operates and how it really works inside a building. He’s had so much input on the offensive game plan and who the coach is, and everything’s been catered to him. When you walk in one of these (NFL) buildings, no one’s going to give a s— about that. No one cares who your dad is. You’re going to have to end up fighting through some adversity. The plays aren’t going to be called to exactly what you want to run. Even last year with Shurmur, a lot of the mistakes he made was stuff that he just decided to call at the line of scrimmage himself, and there’s no recourse of him making those decisions. Whereas, in a real locker room, you make a couple of those decisions, you get your a– ripped so bad that you never want to do it again.” Less than four months after Sanders played his final college game, Colorado retired the numbers of Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and Sanders, with the quarterback’s inclusion and the unusually speedy move leading to a backlash, including from former Buffalo players.
The closest comparison to Sanders’ background might be that of former NFL quarterback Brian Brohm, who was coached by his father through high school and then his brother at Louisville. Midway through his college career, Brohm was discussed as a potential high first-round pick. Once the 2008 draft came around, through, the signal-caller slid to the second round (56th overall) before the Packers rescued him, making a calculated gamble he’d benefit from getting outside the family environment. Instead, Brohm crumbled. At least once, his brother, Jeff, emailed a local beat reporter to complain about negative practice reports and accuse the media of bias. Seventh-round pick Matt Flynn won the No. 2 QB job over Brohm, who was cut the following year and started a total of two NFL games in Buffalo before he was out of the league. That doesn’t mean Sanders will have a similar outcome, but it’s an example of the unknown. “He’s all ball. But the program’s just different,” another AFC GM said. “Do you blame him? It’s his dad. It’s going to be different than any other circumstances because of his dad and who his dad is. But you’d like to think [things will be different] once he gets outside of that. I don’t think it’ll be a problem. The guy wants to be really good. Sometimes you don’t overthink it. It’s complicated just because of the circumstance. He hasn’t helped himself in some of the interviews.”
One longtime NFL assistant coach said his time with Sanders was “the worst formal interview I’ve ever been in in my life. He’s so entitled. He takes unnecessary sacks. He never plays on time. He has horrible body language. He blames teammates. … But the biggest thing is, he’s not that good.” Said one longtime AFC executive: “It didn’t go great in our interview. He wants to dictate what he’s going to do and what’s best for him. He makes you feel small.” Even some of Sanders’ fans expressed disappointment he didn’t take a bigger step forward as a senior. “I liked him the year before,” an NFC GM said. “They did change coordinators. It just felt different. It felt less athletic, less arm talent — everything felt less. If you’re talking about this year’s tape versus (Jaxson) Dart and Shedeur, I don’t think it was particularly close.”
Still, there aren’t enough quarterbacks, and Sanders remains the second-best one in this class for many coaches and scouts. To some football minds, like my colleague and former NFL scout Bucky Brooks, Sanders is the QB1 in this year’s group. Meanwhile, another co-worker, Charles Davis, views the character criticisms leveled at Sanders as overblown and irrelevant when compared to his “talent and determination.” As holders of the No. 1 overall draft pick, the Titans only brought in four players for visits — and Sanders was one of them. Coach Brian Callahan referred to him as one of the elite players in this draft. The Browns, who draft No. 2, also had Sanders in on a visit. The Giants, who draft third, worked out Sanders privately last Thursday as part of their final-week QB scouting tour. The Raiders (sixth overall) and Steelers (21st), who have long-term QB questions, brought in Sanders for visits, as well. “Shedeur, man, you’ve just got to like him,” said one GM who has spoken with Sanders. “It’s the same thing in every building — I don’t think you can get a consensus of 100 percent on him. I still think the Giants can take him.”
