Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders is in consideration for the Heisman Watch this season as he leads Colorado to its best record in years. Meanwhile, NFL teams are taking a closer look at the Buffaloes quarterback months out from the 2025 NFL Draft and apparently coming away with some concerns.
Sanders, age 22, is one of the most talked about players in college football and one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. He’s been integral to Colorado’s success this season, posting career-best numbers across the board.
- Shedeur Sanders stats (ESPN): 163.1 QB rating, 24-6 TD-INT, 2,882 passing yards, 72.9 percent completion rate, 8.4 yards per attempt, 28 sacks taken
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It’s all come at a time when many of the top quarterback prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft have struggled. Georgia’s Carson Beck has done significant damage to his draft stock after being viewed as a first-round pick coming into the season. However, while Sanders’s stock isn’t sliding, teams do already have some off-field concerns with him.
On Friday’s episode of the Yahoo Sports’ Inside Coverage podcast, senior NFL reporter Charles Robinson touched on the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft class and why several teams and scouts believe Sanders has some baggage as a prospect.
“When you talk to people about Shedeur, it doesn’t go very long in the conversation where they go “and then there’s the other baggage’. The other baggage they’re talking about is honestly being afraid of Deion, afraid of ‘If we draft this guy, how often are we going to be criticized for what the scheme is, how we’re bringing him along. Every other thing. It is this whole extra element of otuside chaos that I think teams are really thinking about when you look at him as a prospect.”
Yahoo Sports senior NFL reporter Charles Robinson on Deion Sanders, Shedeur Sanders
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- Deion Sanders coaching record: 11-10 with the Colorado Buffaloes
Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders has already said he will privately intervene if the wrong team drafts his son or two-way player Travis Hunter. It came months after Deion told reporters that Shedeur Sanders will not play for teams in specific cities, especially if they are in cold-weather climates. In short, he’s going to pull an Eli Manning and dictate what team his son plays for.
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The problem is, however, that there doesn’t seem to be a team that views Shedeur as a generational talent or even the caliber of prospect who warrants being the first overall pick. While Colorado’s quarterback has solidified that he’ll likely be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, he’s not viewed as good enough to dictate which team picks him.
Deion’s existing presence in his son’s future is already providing credibility to some of the concerns teams have. Shedeur will also have to answer for his instances of calling out Colorado’s offensive line publicly and getting into social media spats with former teammates. At a position where leadership, maturity and accountability are paramount in an NFL locker room, Sanders has question marks in those areas right now.
