Colorado football QB Shedeur Sanders in red flag territory with Justin Fields and Sam Howell
Colorado football QB Shedeur Sanders was put in "red flag territory" by Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice for his inability to escape pass-rushes without being sacked along with former top NFL draft picks Justin Fields and Sam Howell; two QBs who've been unable to translate their college success to the pros because of, at least partly, the lack of course correction.
"Sanders was pressured on 36.8% of his dropbacks in 2023, well above the national average and something that tracks with Colorado’s personnel up front," Tice prefaced before saying, "But the hit rate for defenses when Sanders was under duress was higher than others who were pressured around the same amount. Let's look at comparable penultimate seasons for recent top draft picks. Drake Maye was pressured on 37.1% of his dropbacks in 2022 and was sacked on 7.7% of his dropbacks, a figure that’s a touch too high but more palpable when looking at his pressure to sack rate of 18.3%. It's a metric that has some correlation for quarterbacks jumping from college to the NFL. Caleb Williams was pressured on 33% of his dropbacks in his first year at USC in 2022 but was sacked only 5.7% of his dropbacks, leaving an easily tolerable pressure to sack rate of 16%.
"Sanders’ pressure to sack rate of 25.3% in his first season at Colorado puts him in the red flag territory of players like Justin Fields and Sam Howell (that's something I touched on in my study of Jayden Daniels)."
Colorado football QB Shedeur Sanders has no excuse not to be better about getting sacked in 2024
Sanders has a new and improved offensive line built by new OC coach Phil Loadholt filled with talented transfers and a the top OT in the country, Jordan Seaton. The "Grown QB" isn't likely to see the same frequency of pass-rushes, but even if he does, Sanders has no excuse to be sacked so many times.
At this point, enough analysts have called out Shedeur's unwillingness to throw the ball away. If Sanders is doing so to preserve his completion percentage, he's simultaneously doing damage to his draft stock by being sacked enough to be categorized in a group with Fields; whose name has become radioactive in NFL circles.
We know the Sanders family reads what the haters have to say, so hopefully Shedeur specifically is reading about his tendency to get himself sacked. That's a tendency that sets CU's offense back each and every time it happens.