For as successful as it has been, there has been a sense of finality to Colorado football’s 2024 season, with quarterback Shedeur Sanders out of eligibility beyond these next two months and Travis Hunter almost certainly off to the NFL.
If Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders has his way, his influence over his son won’t end with coaching him in college.
In an appearance Tuesday on the Fox Sports 1 talk show “Speak,” the elder Sanders said he would intervene if a team that he doesn’t deem to be suitable for his son’s services tries to select the highly rated quarterback in the 2025 NFL draft.
Sanders said he would do so “privately,” not in public view.
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“I’m gonna be dad until the cows come home,” Sanders said. “And with Travis, as well.”
Shedeur Sanders is widely regarded as one of the top quarterbacks in the upcoming draft class, if not the No. 1 quarterback on the board.
In 20 games at Colorado, Sanders has completed 70.9% of his passes for 6,112 yards, 51 touchdowns and nine interceptions. This season, while playing behind a slightly improved offensive line, he’s completing 72.9% of his throws for 2,882 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions. He has helped lead the Buffs to a 7-2 record and a No. 20 ranking in the US LBM Coaches Poll, putting them in position for a potential berth to the College Football Playoff.
Sanders’ success has drawn plenty of interest from the NFL and has many wondering if he could be a savior for a franchise at the next level. In the latest USA TODAY Sports mock draft, Sanders is the No. 2 overall selection of the New York Giants, making him the first quarterback taken. Hunter, at No. 1 overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars, is the only player ahead of him.
When asked by “Speak” co-host Keyshawn Johnson if there were any regions in which he wouldn’t want his son playing, Deion Sanders declined to answer, but did go on to outline his criteria for the situation he’d want for Shedeur.
“Somebody that can handle the quarterback that he is, somebody that can handle understanding what he’s capable of, someone that has had success in the past handling quarterbacks or someone in the organization who understands what they’re doing and not just throwing you out there among the wolves when you don’t have support in the infrastructure of the team,” Sanders said. “Forget the (offensive) line. He’s played with lines that haven’t been great, but he’s been able to do his thing. But the infrastructure of the team and the direction of where we’re going. He can deal with anything.”
Though he’d undoubtedly receive criticism for doing so, Sanders stepping in to try to influence where his son gets drafted wouldn’t be unprecedented. Famously, Eli Manning, another son of a former NFL star, was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the then-San Diego Chargers in the 2004 NFL draft, despite Manning’s agent informing the team he would sit out his entire rookie season if he were drafted by the franchise. Ultimately, the Chargers traded Manning to the Giants.
During his own pre-draft process in 1989, Sanders refused to take a two-hour psychological assessment with the Giants, telling the team — which had the No. 18 overall pick — that he wouldn’t be on the board for them to select and that “I ain’t got time for this.” Sanders went on to be taken by the Atlanta Falcons with the No. 5 overall selection.
When it comes to his own son — as well as Hunter, who he often says is like a son to him — Sanders is confident in what he can do in the NFL, which is why he’s particularly careful about where he might get drafted.
“This kid loves this game and he has an insatiable appetite to win,” he said. “I want somebody to able to propel him to the next level, as well, not just get drafted by a team because we ain’t having it.”