Deion Sanders adds Super Bowl winning OC, former NFL QB to staff at Colorado

Deion Sanders mentioned at Big 12 Media Days that the Colorado coaching staff had 160 years of NFL experience on it. That's just another recruiting tool at Coach Prime's disposal as he looks to entice recruits with NFL development.

Sanders spoke of wanting to add more years with two former NFL coaches he was looking to have join the staff. One of those two looks to have officially joined the Buffaloes staff, as he was introduced to the team on Tuesday, adding an additional 17 years of NFL experience to the Buffs staff.

Byron Leftwich joins the Colorado coaching staff

Sanders introduced former NFL QB and OC Byron Leftwich as a member of the staff on Tuesday, though his exact role was not identified. His pedigree as a QB coach points to an obvious role: working with Colorado's talented QB room, most notably to help in the development of elite freshman JuJu Lewis. Lewis is competing for the starting QB job right now, but is likely to serve as the backup to Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter before being handed the reins in 2026.

Leftwich played in the NFL for 10 years after being a star QB at Marshall. He was the 7th overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Leftwich won a Super Bowl as a player when he served as a backup QB with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Leftwich then saw a meteoric rise as an assistant coach. He jumped from coaching intern with the Arizona Cardinals in 2016 to Offensive Coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by 2019. Leftwich served as the Bucs OC through 2022, helping the team win Super Bowl LV.

Following the Super Bowl win, Leftwich was a popular head coaching candidate in the NFL. Just a couple of years later, Leftwich was out of a job when Tampa Bay let him go following the 2022 season. That's life in the NFL.

Now, Leftwich will look to rehabilitate his coaching career in Boulder with Coach Prime on a staff that has a lot of professional flavor. He'll work closely with OC Pat Shurmur, another former NFL coach. Shurmur faced plenty of criticism last season from Colorado fans, and if there are growing pains with a lot of roster turnover, he'll likely be looking over his shoulder at Leftwich, who was almost certainly brought to Colorado with the idea that he would eventually become the program's OC.