Good morning. Let’s have some Shedeur Sanders gossip to go with our morning coffee.
NFL Network’s Tom Pellissero shared some intel from anonymous team general managers about this year’s quarterback class, and some were happy to share some tea on their experiences with Deion’s prized son:
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.”
There are a lot of people rooting for Shedeur to be really good. Others want him to have a trash career. Me, I’m just here with a bowl of popcorn to enjoy the show. Obviously the Sanders team has treated this draft cycle very differently, and they don’t feel like Shedeur needs to necessarily audition and flirt with all 32 teams because as long as there’s enough synergy between he and one other NFL team, why would the thoughts and opinions of 31 others matter?
To me, the other thing that strikes me as odd in all of this is that I think Shedeur actually loves playing football. Or at least that’s what I’d like to assume of him. Is he passionate about the detailed work that it takes to be successful at his position? That might be up for conversation, but I don’t doubt that he loves playing the game when he’s out there and in control of his own throws. For as much as he might enjoy the game, the public’s attention isn’t focused on that because nobody on First Take wants to even try and paint that picture for us. If it’s Sanders talk, it’s going to be about how differently and unconventionally the Hall of Fame player turned coach and his sons have moved over the past handful of years. The talk is always about how Deion and Shedeur go out of their ways to irritate people and to always have more doubters than supporters in just about everything they do. Which, look, if you don’t want to recruit kids to come to Colorado and do things somewhat traditionally, that’s fine. Those kids will still have to have some personal responsibility and play well if they don’t want to be embarrassed on Saturdays. But once Shedeur’s in the NFL, there’s no cult of personality that can save or protect his image. If he’s not going to crumble, as noted above, like Brian Brohm once had, then Shedeur is probably going to have to show some obvious signs of loving the little, traditional, detailed things about the position he plays, because talking season’s only some hours away from closing up on him.
The Purple Album 