When will Shedeur Sanders return to Colorado football after back injury? QB gives encouraging update, timeline

Shedeur Sanders gave an encouraging injury update on his fractured back while speaking to the DNVR Buffs crew at Super Bowl Radio Row; with the Colorado football star offering the end of February as his targeted return date.

"I'm feeling good," Shedeur prefaced before saying, "I'll be like fully 100% by the end of this month, I feel like, just doing the right things...it's possible. But I feel way better than I felt in the month of December. All I was doing in the month of December was healing. It's different processes you got to do and different things. You can't just go back and be working, and that's the thing, some people work hard for no reason. You got to have intent while you're doing something, you can work hard but have intent with what you're working on. That's just the point I'm at in my life."

Sanders was banged up for much of the 2023 behind a mostly-replaced Buffs offensive line and last appeared during the first half of an eventual 56-14 blowout at the hands of Wazzu in Week 12.

Colorado football QB Shedeur Sanders believes he's better than every 2024 NFL draft peer

Shedeur could've declared for the 2024 NFL draft after two years at Jackson State and one in Boulder, but the "Grown QB" decided to play under his father one last time for Colorado. Having the second-highest NIL valuation was certainly enticing enough as well.

Sanders proclaimed that he's better than every QB who did declare for the 2024 draft.

"I’m biased, but I don’t see a quarterback that’s better than me," Sanders told Sports Illustrated. "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 [school], 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."

Shedeur has an improved offensive line ahead of him in 2024, and several incoming quarterbacks from the transfer portal behind him in the QB room if he does want to preserve himself during games CU is either up big or down big. It's do-or-die for his NFL draft stock in 2024; especially after his bold words about his peers.