In conversations with scouts in preseason, many of them had Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders as the top quarterback prospect for the 2025 NFL Draft. While some in the media touted others like Georgia’s Carson Beck or Texas’ Quinn Ewers, multiple team sources have said they still see Sanders as the best of the group. Sanders is having a strong season, while Beck has had issues with turnovers and Ewers has missed time with an injury. Area scouts say that they expect Sanders to enter the 2025 NFL Draft. However, there are some complicated factors to consider, including his father trying to dictate which team Shedeur is selected by.
Area scouts say that Sanders’s father, Colorado head coach and NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, wants a say in which team his son plays for, similar to Archie Manning guiding the Chargers to trade Eli Manning in the 2004 NFL Draft.
Scouts say that if Deion and Shedeur do not like the franchises picking at the top of the draft, it is possible he could return to Colorado next year. They say that is unlikely but not impossible. Returning to the Buffalos certainly would help his father win games and field a more talented team, so that appeal to help Deion Sanders’s job performance is also present.
It also sounds like finances are not directing the decision. NFL team sources say Shedeur Sanders is making around $7 million this year through N.I.L. money. According to Spotrac.com, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is making $7 million this year after being the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Thus, Sanders could make around the same amount of money playing for Colorado as he would as a rookie in the NFL. With the presence of his father, Shedeur Sanders has a very unique draft situation to watch over the next few months before the deadline to enter the 2025 NFL Draft. In my latest 2025 NFL Mock Draft, I have Sanders going at the top of the first round, but it remains a mystery if Sanders will want to go to that franchise, try to engineer a trade like the Mannings, or go back to school and stay with his father next season.
