Shedeur Sanders is indeed an ‘elite’ upgrade at QB for Colorado football
By Matt Kennedy
“Where is Shadeur?” Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders asked the room full of reporters and media members, scanning the room at his introductory press conference back in December 2022.
“And this is your quarterback,” Coach Prime said. “He’s gonna have to earn it, believe that.”
Those words echoed for the remaining six months leading up to fall camp in Boulder. Whether he is the coach’s son or not, Shedeur is the solidified starting quarterback for the Buffs.
With less than two weeks until the season opener against TCU, there is no question that the son of NFL Hall of Famer, Coach Prime, is the starting quarterback for Colorado football. How good will he be? Making objective predictions for Shedeur can be challenging due to his fame and relation to his father/head coach.
Behind all the hype and cameras in the face of the Jerry Rice Award winner, Sanders is a formidable draft prospect and currently has 150-1 odds to win the Heisman, according to some sportsbooks.
The recent comments made by Colorado tight ends coach Tim Brewster point to how Sanders has the potential to be excellent under center this season.
“Absolutely elite,” Brewster said when asked about Shedeur (h/t BuffsBeat). “I’m talking about top-level, elite quarterback. The challenge for us offensively is for us to meet him at his level.”
Brewster would continue to allude to his prior coaching experience, which consists of 34 years at the collegiate or NFL level. He exclaimed Shedeur is up there with some of the best quarterbacks he has seen, specifically in processing information, which is essential to being an elite quarterback.
“Shedeur is playing with confidence and poise,” Brewster said. “Mike Shanahan, when I was in Denver, wanted to know one thing with my quarterbacks. How quickly can they process information? Reams of information.”
Tim Brewster’s comments on Shedeur Sanders hold more weight than Colorado football fans realize
These comments hold more weight than many fans might think. The University of Colorado, and the entire Sanders family, have received a lot of praise and hype from the national media and fans. Still, Tim Brewster spoke objectively from a football perspective.
He’s coached offenses with quarterbacks consisting of Drew Brees, Brett Favre, Jake Plummer, Jameis Winston (during his Heisman campaign), and Dak Prescott. Two of those names are considered two of the greatest quarterback minds ever to play the game.
A coach would only want to put that pressure or attention on their quarterback if they firmly believed their guy was who they said he was. Shedeur appears to be that guy who Brewster says he is.
CU has a lot of questions entering the 2023-24 football season, especially concerning the offense, which got outscored by an average of 29 points per game last season. The four quarterbacks utilized the previous season combined for an average of 98 passing yards per game and a 54.35 completion percentage. Shadeur, last season for Jackson State, completed 70 percent of his passes and threw for 40 touchdowns.
Without getting too much into stats, solely on the eye test of quarterback analytics, Shedeur is a dramatic upgrade at the quarterback position for the Buffaloes.
CU fans should be ecstatic about the potential of having an “elite” player on the roster for the first time since Kordell Stewart.