With the 2024 NFL Draft in the rearview mirror, it's time to start gearing up for the class of 2025. If you check out the way-too-early mock draft from CBS Sports NFL Draft expert Ryan Wilson, you'll notice a familiar name at the top: Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of longtime NFL star and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders.
The younger Sanders is in consideration to be one of the top picks in next year's class, but apparently, had he entered the 2024 class, he could have been viewed in the same league.
"He was QB1 for me if he came out this year," a longtime NFL evaluator told The Washington Post."You have to manage him a little differently, and Deion is going to be heavily involved … so you have to be prepared to deal with that bullshit. But I love watching that kid play. He's a born winner."
Sanders' Buffaloes started the season 3-0 before dropping seven of their final eight games in 2023. The Sanders-led offense averaged 30.8 points per game, but the defense yielded 38 per contest, rendering the Buffs largely unable to keep up over the second half of the year. Sanders found better team success at Jackson State, with the Tigers going 10-2 in 2021 and 11-1 in 2022. Still, he has apparently put himself in great position for 2025, and seemingly would have for this year, had he chosen to enter the 2024 draft.
"Absolutely, he was a first-round pick," an NFL general manager told The Post. "Absolutely. There would have been seven [taken in the first round]. We obviously didn't do as much work on him as the other quarterbacks once he announced he wasn't coming out, but he would have been in the top three [quarterbacks] for us this year, I think, had he gone through the entire process. He probably would have been up there with [Caleb] Williams and [Jayden] Daniels."
It seems highly unlikely that Sanders would have surpassed USC's Caleb Williams as the consensus top quarterback in this year's class, but he does have obvious talent. During his two seasons at JSU, Sanders completed 613 of 896 passes (68.4%) for 6,963 yards (7.8 per attempt), 70 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. Along with star two-way player Travis Hunter, Sanders followed his father to Colorado for his junior campaign, during which he went 298 of 430 (69.3%) for 3,230 yards (7.5 per attempt), 27 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions during his first season at the Power 5 level.
