Deion Sanders makes hilarious claim concerning his son Shedeur, Travis Hunter, and the 2025 NFL Draft
Deion Sanders and his alter ego "Prime" sure do love attention. So, of course when he joined the Million Dollaz Worth of Game show (Barstool Sports affiliate) over the weekend he didn't shy away from making yet another hilarious NFL Draft prediction when it came to his son Shedeur and star two-way player Travis Hunter. […]
Deion Sanders and his alter ego "Prime" sure do love attention. So, of course when he joined the Million Dollaz Worth of Game show (Barstool Sports affiliate) over the weekend he didn't shy away from making yet another hilarious NFL Draft prediction when it came to his son Shedeur and star two-way player Travis Hunter.
Late in the show, one of the hosts Gillie Da King asked Coach Prime, "Where do you predict Shedeur [Sanders] and Travis [Hunter] going the draft?"
Without hesitation Deion said, "Top four. Anywhere from one through four. One of them is going to be one…and the latter one will not go behind four."
That assertion was hilarious enough (as we'll talk through shortly), but it was not even close to the most noteworthy thing he said. Coach Prime continued:
"Now, all this is subjective because I know where I want them to go. So it's certain cities that it ain't gonna happen…It's going to be an Eli [Manning]."
What is Coach Prime saying here with Shedeur and Travis Hunter? "Going to be an Eli [Manning]"? For the few who may not remember, Eli Manning refused to play for the San Diego Chargers when he was drafted, forcing the team to eventually trade him to the New York Giants.
So, Sanders is telling us, more than a year in advance, that both his son and Travis Hunter could flat out refuse to play for certain teams if they try to draft them. This is hilarious and definitely not going to happen many reasons.
First, practically speaking, since 2000 there have only been four instances where a defensive back was selected inside the first four draft picks. Only a handful of instances for wide receiver. So regardless of which position Travis Hunter chooses to play at the next level odds are low that top four happens. And he's an elite athlete, but he frankly struggled in coverage once Colorado got past the cupcakes early in their schedule last season. He needs to take a big step for early first round to come to fruition.
But! With all that said, Hunter going top four is way more likely than Shedeur.
"What? What do you mean Shedeur isn't a likely top four pick?" – Many of You Readers, Probably
Shedeur Sanders is a really fun college quarterback who isn't afraid to air it out, while also not committing a high number of turnovers. That's great. However, just because his last name is Sanders and clickbait pieces with nameless scouts mentioning him get a lot of attention doesn't make him a round one quarterback prospect.
Sanders had some great raw volume stats last year and some solid big time throws against his weakest defensive competition, but unless he cleans up these three key areas in his game there's no chance he's an early draft pick: sacks and pressure avoidance, adding rushing value with his legs, and consistency in intermediate passing game.
Coach Prime wants to blame his offensive line for all 50 of Shedeur's sacks last season, but that's just not how this works. By every meaningful metric, like pass block win rate and pass block efficiency (via SIS, PFF, and a couple other charting services) Colorado's offensive line wasn't even bottom quartile in FBS. Shedeur just took sacks at an obscene rate and created pressures for himself more than any other power conference quarterback in the country. That has to change.
Shedeur also logged -77 rushing yards on the season last year. That's somewhat related to his sack issues, but he simply does not have or at least utilize requisite mobility to project as a first round pick in today's NFL. Since 2017 there has been one first round quarterback to log negative career rushing yards in college. That quarterback was Josh Rosen.
And lastly, Colorado's scheme is predicated upon constant dinking and dunking on short easy passes to set up high-percentage one-on-one deep shots for Shedeur. Yes, Shedeur hit a handful of great deep shots last year, but the intermediate passing game needs work. Shedeur clearly struggled getting the ball to his second and third reads at times. And his completion rate dropped below 55% on throws between 10 and 19 yards.
Shedeur could certainly develop in his fourth college season, improve in some key areas, and be an early draft pick. However, after three collegiate seasons that seems unlikely. The truth is that Shedeur has essentially been the same exact player for three years of quarterbacking. And that player isn't a first round pick.
Deion Sanders clearly wants the best for his players. It's great he wants to promote his guys. That's admirable. But setting them up to be drama queens a year before their NFL Draft isn't a great look. And as of today, there's virtually no chance that both (or either) Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter go early enough in the 2025 NFL Draft to warrant such a primadonna attitude.
