Shedeur Sanders has a chance to be the first player taken in the 2025 NFL Draft, and the Colorado quarterback believes that would have been the case had he chosen to turn pro this year, too.
The 2024 draft class is viewed as being very strong at the quarterback position, but Sanders feels he would have been No. 1 had he not decided to return to Colorado for his senior season.
He told Tom Dierberger of Sports Illustrated this week that there are several reasons he believes he is more proven than Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels or any other QB coming out of college this year.
“I’m biased, but I don’t see a quarterback that’s better than me,” Sanders told Dierberger in Las Vegas ahead of Super Bowl LVIII. “I don’t see a quarterback that went through as much adversity as me, that had four [offensive coordinators] in four years. Coming from an HBCU, coming to a Power Five, having real pressure on me. A lot of people don’t understand, that’s a lot more adversity than you think just even being the son of Deion Sanders.”
Sanders confidently said that if you put any of the top quarterbacks in this year’s draft class in his situation, they would not have had the same success. The Buffaloes star referred to himself as the “safest bet.”
“I respect their game, I respect what they’re doing because to be able to be a first-round draft pick, to be able to have success on the field, it takes a lot of hard work and determination and everything,” Sanders added. “But the most pressure and the safest bet is me.”
Williams is considered by many to be one of the best QB prospects in years. It remains to be seen if talent evaluators will view Sanders the same way a year from now.
Sanders had an outstanding first season at Colorado. He finished with 3,230 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and just three interceptions.
He added another four rushing scores. His stock this year probably would have been hurt by the way Colorado fell apart after their hot start, but he will certainly be in contention to be the No. 1 pick in 2025 if he has a similar season next year.