Colorado star projected to leave Buffs, land in major market
Colorado football quarterback Shedeur Sanders was projected by NFL Mocks’ Tarringo Basile-vaughan to leave the Buffs for the NFL draft and land with the New York Jets with the No. 46 pick in the second round to back up Aaron Rodgers.
“With Aaron Rodgers back and healthy, the New York Jets can address other needs at No. 46, but it will be tough to pass up on Shedeur Sanders who had the Colorado Buffaloes as the talk of the college football world earlier in the season,” Basile-vaughan wrote.
“Although the Buffaloes came down to earth, Sanders remained one of college football’s most hyped-up quarterbacks because of what he did on the field despite playing behind an offensive line that had him scrambling for his life. In all, Sanders is the right kind of young quarterback to have playing behind Rodgers assuming the Zach Wilson experiment is over. With this pick, the Jets will be thinking life after Rodgers and perhaps finally doing things the right way at the quarterback position when it comes to grooming young players to eventually step in and be a leader on offense.”
Shedeur Sanders unlikely to leave Colorado football if not a definitive first-round NFL draft talent
This projection from NFL Mocks would confirm what Mike Farrell of the Mike Farrell Sports brand said about Sanders being a round-two talent at best.
“(Shedeur being a round-one talent) came up after last week’s debate about whether ESPN NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller was right or wrong (he’s wrong) to have Sanders ahead of UNC QB Drake Maye for next year’s draft,” Farrell prefaced in his “fiction” response in a “Fact or Fiction” piece about Shedeur going being a first-round pick before saying, “And it got me thinking — why is Sanders even considered a round-one talent? He has size and a solid arm and he’s accurate but he’s also not great going through progressions and check downs and he is a statue back there without a great clock in his head. He’s a sack machine unless he processes quicker and makes faster decisions. At the college level, it’s evident. At the NFL level, he’d be doomed. He’s a round-two talent at best for me right now and likely round-three.”
The odds aren’t high, though, of Sanders leaving Boulder if he isn’t considered a first-round talent. With Coach Prime transitioning the Buffs to the Big 12, having a worthy product will be a major question in 2024. Without Shedeur, though Ryan Staub proved himself worthy of being in Colorado’s QB room against Utah in Week 13, the Buffs would be hard-pressed to even match the 2023 season’s modest results.
Plus, with Shedeur raking in record NIL profits, second-round NFL money probably isn’t enough to make it a slam-dunk business decision compared to returning to his father’s Colorado football program for a second season.