Strike 2: It’s a good year to be a prospective NFL quarterback who’s looking forward to April’s NFL Draft. The top three drafting teams, and five of the top seven, need quarterbacks. The law of supply and demand.
This year, there are not a half dozen big time QB prospects out there getting ready for the NFL combine. Experts say there are only two – Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. Some will toss Alabama’s Jalen Milroe or Texas’s Quinn Ewers into the conversation just to make things more interesting. However it won’t be a shock if the third quarterback chosen isn’t picked until the second round, or later.
Make no mistake, Ward and Sanders are the coveted pair. There’s not much agreement on who will go first or where each will end up. On one website – known for fairly accurate assessments of the draft – there are two different “mock” drafts. On one, Sanders is projected to be the top pick overall by Tennessee. On the other, he falls all the way to sixth, ending up with the Las Vegas Raiders. Ward has also been mentioned as the top pick overall.
What should matter most to Team Sanders – and you know Deion will want a say in all this – is what’s the best fit for Shedeur. It’s actually more important than which QB hungry team drafts him and where. Go to the wrong place and be stuck in a system that doesn’t fit his skill set, and things won’t go well for the former CU Buff.
For example, if Sanders lands in a place with a head coach who has the same kind of “system” mindset as the Broncos’ Sean Payton has, you’re talking about an oil v water scenario. Sanders is the exact opposite of a Bo Nix-style system QB. He’s best when he’s allowed to improvise, being able to make positive plays happen “off script.” You think Payton didn’t mesh with Russell Wilson? Shedeur would drive Payton to an early grave.
On the other hand, the Raiders new head coach Pete Carroll won a Super Bowl with Wilson at the helm. If Sanders lands in Las Vegas (and his penchant for fine jewelry and endless attention would probably go over pretty well there) with Carroll and new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, he could do just fine. (How would Broncos Country feel about that scenario?)
Tennessee head coach Brian Callahan comes from a football family – his father Bill is a renowned offensive line coach – but thus far, it’s tough to tell how he’d handle a player like Sanders. Same goes for Brian Daboll in New York. The Giants have been a QB graveyard since Eli Manning retired. They’d be likely to hand Shedeur the keys right away, but it’s hard to guess how things would play out. Cleveland? Head coach Kevin Stefanski let Jamis Winston chuck it all over the yard against the Broncos on a Monday Night. Shedeur would love that. Then again, Winston was shown the door at the end of the season.
A lot of unknowns.
Those unknowns include everything that still has to happen leading up to the draft. The combine, on-campus “pro” days, interviews, and the inevitable microscope the media will put on prospects now that the Super Bowl is over and it’s officially “draft season.” There will no doubt be negatives that get reported that may have some impact (although probably minor) and questions about how Shedeur will do when his father isn’t his head coach. Deion gave Shedeur a lot of latitude at CU. So much so in fact, that Deion’s first highly touted offensive coordinator, Sean Lewis, gave up his post and ultimately left the program over it. Shedeur has pretty much been CU’s play caller for both of his two seasons under center.
His “coachability” may become a thing.
What will override all concerns will be Sanders’ pure throwing ability. He can fling it. No one is questioning if he’s got NFL talent. But where he lands and with whom will ultimately decide if that raw talent becomes successful in the NFL.
