NFL Coach Says Shedeur Sanders Would Be '6th-Round Pick' If He Wasn't Deion's Son

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders is arguably the most polarizing player in the 2025 NFL draft, and one NFC quarterbacks coach believes being the son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders has inflated his value.

"This guy—if his last name was Breer—and he was coming out of Minnesota, he'd be a sixth-round pick," the coach said, per Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. "He doesn't play with good feet, he's late on stuff, he has an average arm. His accuracy is O.K., but he has no timing, no anticipation. He flashes some throws, but he's an average player, not a great athlete. Even if you watch his pro day, there's no timing or rhythm. He takes extra hitches."

Another coach pointed to Sanders' lack of arm strength and anticipation, saying "everything's just so slow" while also highlighting other concerns.

"It’s so hard because there really is no redeemable quality that’s at a high end," the NFC coordinator said. "Give him credit—when someone's open, he's accurate. He's tough. He's resilient. But in terms of a pure thrower, he's not up there with the top starters in the NFL; he's well below that.

"… Looking at last year's class, for me, he's closer to [Spencer] Rattler. If there's a world where it works out, it's because he's accurate, tough, has some savvy, but I'd be surprised if he was a really good starter."

It isn't difficult to craft a narrative in either direction about Sanders.

On the one hand, he played behind a terrible offensive line at Colorado without much elite talent around him outside of Travis Hunter and still led the Buffaloes to a 9-4 record in 2024 after they were 4-8 in 2023.

He won the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year award while making plays with both his arm and legs and carried the offense in key moments while demonstrating impressive resiliency and toughness.

On the other hand, there are concerns about his arm strength and anticipation. A detractor could also explain Colorado's improvement from 2023 to 2024 as more of a product of moving from a loaded Pac-12 to a mediocre Big 12 than anything else.

Sanders has been under the spotlight more than arguably any other player in this draft, and that won't change in his rookie season. It remains to be seen where he will end up, although B/R's NFL Scouting Department projected him as the No. 6 overall pick in its latest mock draft.

Perhaps that is exactly what will unfold and he will end up being a top-10 pick. Or perhaps the concerns these coaches expressed are shared across the league and he ends up slipping to the end of the first round or beyond.

But he will be a storyline either way.