Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
Does Sanders make sense for the Giants?
The quarterback discussion surrounding the 2025
NFL Draft has featured one name for more than a year.
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders has been considered one of the top quarterbacks in this draft class since he decided to return to school following the 2023 season.
Going into the 2025 NFL Draft, Sanders is widely considered the draft’s second-best quarterback. He has been linked to – or floated as an option for – the
New York Giants,
Cleveland Browns,
New York Jets,
Las Vegas Raiders,
New Orleans Saints, and even the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Is he, though? Or is this a case of media personalities using a famous brand name to drum up excitement for a draft that’s otherwise lacking in star power (if not talent)?
After returning to college, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders proclaimed that had Shedeur declared for the 2024 class, he would have been the second quarterback taken. Considering how highly that class is regarded, it should speak very well of Shedeur as a prospect.
Of course, Shedeur is Deion’s son as well as his player, so he may be a bit biased. Let’s take a look for ourselves and evaluate Shedeur Sanders as a prospect. Are there concerns that are being overlooked, or does he live up to the hype?
Background
Measurables
Kent Lee Platte |
RAS.football
Sanders is, frankly, the least impressive physical specimen of the top quarterback prospects. He might not come in under most teams’ thresholds at 6-foot 1 ½ inches tall, 212 pounds, but he’s also hardly an imposing figure. He has a relatively slight frame that is likely maxed out with little room to add mass or strength.
Like Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart, we don’t have any numbers to quantify Sanders’ athleticism. But where their tape reveals good (if not elite) athletes, Sanders is probably best described as a “functional” athlete. Sanders simply doesn’t have stand-out physical or athletic traits and at 23 years old, he’s physically mature.
Tape Viewed
At Jacksonville State
At Colorado
- Vs. Oregon (2023), vs. Arizona State (2023), vs. Oregon State (2023)
- Vs. Nebraska (2024), vs. Arizona (2024), vs. Kansas (2024), vs. BYU (2024)
Intangibles
So much of what we focus on with quarterbacks is tangible — things like their height, weight, 40 time, or their ball velocity. However much of what makes a quarterback successful is intangible.
We can’t really measure things like mental processing, football IQ, leadership, or competitiveness, but we can see their effects.
Football IQ and Mental processing
This is the area upon which Sanders will be drafted.
He is well regarded for his football IQ and processing, though his play on tape is a bit more nuanced than simply proclaiming him a savant and moving on.
Sanders played in a typical RPO and quick-game based spread offense at Jacksonville State. He was only asked to make one or two-man reads on a given play and executed that well. Things changed when he transferred to Colorado and Pat Shurmur was hired as an offensive analyst. Shurmur was eventually promoted to co-offensive coordinator and play caller, and was the sole offensive coordinator for the 2024 season. And while Shurmur didn’t institute a full “Pro Style Offense” at Colorado, he did incorporate elements of the offense he ran with the
Minnesota Vikings and Giants in 2018 and 2019.
Shurmur’s offensive philosophy revolves around being quarterback friendly. His scheme typically involves using alignment or pre-snap motion to (try to) expose the defensive play. From there, the offense then frequently uses a zone coverage beater on one side of the field and man coverage beater on the other. It falls on the quarterback to correctly identify the coverage type and pick the correct side of the offense to counter it – or find a checkdown if necessary.
The Colorado scheme featured a high rate of screen plays and quick passes. It usually used screens to counter man coverage, while quick concepts and crossing routes to counted zones.
The weakness of the scheme comes with well-schemed or disguised coverages and pressures, or coverage rotations.
On most plays, and against most opponents, Sanders accurately diagnosed the defense in the pre-snap phase and was efficient distributing the ball.
Things got more interesting against better coached or more talented opponents, however.
Those teams were able to execute well-disguised coverage rotations or blitzes, which interfered with Sanders’ process. He slowed down when the pre and post-snap reads didn’t align, resulting in hesitations and occasionally lost track of defenders in coverage.
Sanders can also become prone to letting his eyes drop and holding the ball. He has a tendency to drift back in the pocket while buying time, exposing himself to pressure off the edges and putting his tackles in difficult positions.
Sanders can also be a bit slow to move off his preferred concept and find his check-downs. He has the longest time-to-throw of any of the top quarterbacks at 3.0 seconds, which contributed to his high sack rate. Some of that was due to trying to buy time for his receivers to work open. Other times, however, Sanders held the ball needlessly and passed up opportunities down the field.
None of that is to say that Sanders isn’t a smart quarterback or can’t process – the perceptions aren’t inaccurate in that regard. However, he does seem to be a pressure-sensitive quarterback and the inconsistencies help to explain his high sack rate.
Leadership and Toughness
The Sanders, father and son, are credited with turning around the cultures at Jacksonville State and Colorado.
Sanders is certainly a tough quarterback. He’s taken a lot of sacks over the last four years – 152 in total, 94 of which came in the last two years. Credit to Sanders for keep getting up, as well as being willing to take on further contact as a runner.
That toughness is often pointed to as the foundation of Sanders’ leadership – that he’s willing to lead by example as opposed to being vocal. As he put it when arriving at Colorado,
“Like I’m a different type of leader. I’m not with the rah-rah and all that type of stuff. I’m not that guy. I’m more of a laid back, chill guy. But when we’re between the lines and it’s time to put real work in, then it’s a different mode. It’s different,” Sanders explained.
“So, it just depends, like, I don’t force myself to be a leader. Leaders will just come and you’ll be able to see [that] when the lights come on.”
Shedeur was credited with holding teammates to account.
Teams will also need to reckon with concerns regarding Sanders’ maturity thanks to actions on the field. He seemingly criticized his offensive line following Colorado’s Week 2 loss to Nebraska in which he was sacked five times.
He said in the post-game press conference, “I mean, how many times did Raiola get touched? How many times did Raiola get touched?”
Later in the season, Sanders was caught on tape shoving a ref during a scrum following a play.
Teams will also have to reckon with a potential for distraction or drama that might be present with the other quarterback prospects. Shedeur is, easily, the biggest name with the most star power in the draft, and with it comes a significant degree of attention.
Prior to the 2024 season, an
NFC scout reportedly said, “You’re not only drafting Shedeur, you’re drafting the family as well, and there will be varying opinions about that.”
Some teams are comfortable inviting the spotlight, while others will need to decide what appetite they have for the potential attention.
Arm Talent
Sanders has the weakest arm of the top quarterback prospects. He doesn’t have a squirt-gun like post-injury Peyton Manning or Chad Pennington arm, but his arm is certainly limited and is visibly weaker than the other top quarterback prospects.
Sanders won’t fall below teams’ thresholds for arm strength unless an individual team has unusually high standards. He’s able to execute most throws an NFL quarterback is routinely asked to make and can reach 20 yards downfield with solid accuracy. He doesn’t have a particularly elastic arm but is able to make throws off-platform and on the move.
Unfortunately, Sanders’ arm strength is dependent on his ability to generate power from the ground up and he lacks top-end arm strength. He doesn’t have the ability to generate significant torque without setting his feet. Likewise, he needs to exert effort to deliver passes with zip underneath or drive the ball to the intermediate area of the field.
Accuracy is Sanders’ calling card and he’s very good at getting the ball on target, particularly when on-time and in rhythm. He’s capable of delivering very accurate passes and setting up receivers for yards after the catch.
That said, he can also have to sacrifice precision for power. Sanders’ ball placement falls off when he needs to drive the ball to deliver passes with velocity. In those instances, the ball is still generally on target, but it can be low, high, or behind receivers. Forcing his receivers to adjust to the ball can work against yards after catch, open them up to big hits, or create opportunities for interceptions.
Sanders’ arm limitations show up on deeper passes.
He truggles to generate velocity on passes over 20 yards or so, and has to use trajectory and put a significant amount of air under the ball to reach further down the field. That can lead to “rainbow” passes that can be slow to arrive at the catch point or not be layered well. Likewise, they can stall out beyond 35 or so yards, forcing receivers to slow down or stop and wait for the ball to get to them. The lack of velocity also allowed defenders to step in front of the pass or make a play on the ball while closing from a distance. He saw a jump in interceptions and interception rate in 2024, which coincided with more passes down the field, and there were multiple instances in the tape viewed where velocity was a factor.
He also has a noticeable tic in his throwing motion when attempting deeper passes. He consistently pats the ball or “burps the baby” prior to winding up for a deep pass. That slows his motion and also cues defenders that a pass is coming. There were multiple batted passes due to defenders using this to time getting their hands up.
Sanders shouldn’t need to be propped up by the scheme, however he might fare better in a shorter-range offense than a vertical passing attack.
Athleticism
As with his arm, it isn’t a question that Sanders is the worst athlete of the top quarterbacks. Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough, and Jalen Milroe are all clearly better athletes than Sanders, and in some cases significantly better.
That isn’t to say that Sanders is a
bad athlete – he’s a functional athlete for the position. He isn’t particularly twitchy, quick, agile, or explosive, and at times looks downright awkward. However, he’s quick and agile enough to dodge defensive linemen if he has some room. Likewise, he has enough play strength to break poor arm-tackle attempts and enough speed to keep separation from edge defenders or linebackers on the run.
For the most part, the extent of Sanders’ mobility is executing bootleg roll-outs or scrambling after missed sack attempts.
Sanders does have better-than-advertised speed in the open field. Again, it isn’t
great and nobody will be confusing him with Lamar Jackson or 2015-vintage Cam Newton. It takes him a couple steps to get up to speed, but once he gets moving he can pick up some chunk yardage on the ground. Sanders shouldn’t be counted upon as a regular contributor in the running game, however he can convert the occasional first down if the defense turns their back on him in man coverage.
Whichever team drafts Sanders should understand that they aren’t doing so for his athleticism, and that whatever he can add on his own is a bonus.
Projectable Stats
The use of stats and analytics is changing how we view and analyze the game of football. However, just because we have masses of data points, doesn’t mean we automatically make better decisions. Data that’s misunderstood or poorly interpreted is the same as no data at all, and distracting noise at worst.
However, there are some stats and advanced analytics that do have predictive value. Some stats, such as sack rate, are “sticky” and can follow quarterbacks from
college to the NFL, as
well as from team to team.
For our purposes, we’ll be looking at completion percentage, yards per game, sack rate and pressure to sack rate, EPA, and ESPN’s QBR. Each of those stats has a moderately strong to strong correlation coefficient between college and the NFL. None of them are definitive, but they’re another tool that can help provide a backstop to check bias as well as confirm what we did (or didn’t) see on tape. For reference, I’ll be listing their rank among top quarterback prospects in the 2025 quarterback class.
Completion percentage: 74.0% (1st)
Yards per game: 318.0 yards (3rd)
Sack rate: 8.1% (5th)
Pressure to sack rate: 20.1% (5th)
EPA: 82.8 (2nd)
QBR: 78.2 (4th)
Sanders’ analytic profile should be held up as proof that while stats and analytics can provide valuable context and can be a good backstop for tape evaluation, they are ultimately a supplement.
Sanders’ analytics present a jumbled picture.
He has a sky-high completion percentage, his passes tend to be valuable, and he picks up good yardage on a per-game basis. The flip side of that is that he threw the most passes of the top quarterback prospects in 2024 (477), but had a relatively modest yards per attempt (8.7, fourth among top QBs).
His yards per attempt was, of itself, a spike after declining from 7.8 per attempt to 7.5 per attempt over the previous three years. Per Pro Football Focus, Sanders’ average depth of target was just 8.1 yards downfield, fifth among the top 5 quarterbacks and 1.6 yards shorter than the fourth place passer (Tyler Shough, 9.7 yards downfield). Also per PFF, Sanders was eighth in college football with 631 yards off of screen passes, which was significantly more than the other prospects.
His volume of passes combined with high percentage attempts lines up with what we see on tape. He is a generally accurate passer who was forced to throw at a high rate to compensate for a poor running game. Many of his passes were short and high percentage passes – both to supplement the running game and to compensate for Sanders’ relatively mediocre arm.
That all presents a backdrop for Sanders’ sack rate and pressure-to-sack rate to be particularly concerning.
Colorado’s offensive line was not good and there were sacks that Sanders could do nothing about. However Sanders did them no favors, either.
As mentioned above, Sanders has some bad habits in the pocket which often put his line in poor positions. He allowed pressure to turn into sacks at a high rate at Colorado (25.1% in 2023, 20.1 percent in 2024), and that has a strong correlation with taking unnecessary sacks at the NFL level. For reference, Tommy DeVito had a 25% pressure-to-sack rate at Illinois, which ballooned to 37% in 2023 and 30% in 2024.
It’s rare for quarterbacks with high sack and P2S rates in college to find success in the NFL. Those that do either have exceptional athletic traits (Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels) or are exceptional throwers of the football like Joe Burrow. That Sanders had a high sack rate and P2S while in a short-range and quick-strike offense is a significant concern that could only get worse in the NFL.
This is a bright red flag on his profile and his future team will need to be very sure that his traits can compensate for his tendency to take sacks.
Game Tape
Final Word
What do we make of Shedeur Sanders?
Ultimately, the process regarding Sanders’ evaluation will be time and manpower intensive, likely more so than any other quarterback.
Setting aside the “between the whistles” evaluation, teams will need to dig into Shedeur Sanders the person. They’ll need to investigate the dynamics surrounding his family and the Sanders Brand. They’ll need to evaluate his personality, maturity level, and leadership.
There have been favorable reports regarding Sanders as a young man, as well as some concerning smoke. Teams have far more resources than those of us on the outside, and with them the ability to (hopefully) cut through hype and media spin.
Once teams have those evaluations, coaches, front offices, and ownership will need to have honest and frank discussions. Put simply
if they find risk, what’s their appetite for it?
The teams can only answer that question for themselves.
On the field and between the whistles, Sanders probably won’t be for every team. He won’t fall below teams’ thresholds for measurable traits, but he is more limited than most top quarterback prospects.
Prior to the 2018 NFL Draft, Mark Schofield likened Josh Allen to a long-drive competitor. He could launch the ball 400 yards, but had no clue where it would come down other than “that way”.
To extend the metaphor, Sanders is like a golfer with a 200-yard drive, but a good short game. That’s an underrated skill set to have, and you can get to be a low handicap player with a good short game and putting.
When he needs to throw deep – or throw with velocity – it starts to look like that golfer with a 200-yard drive stepping up to a tee box on a 500-yard Par 5 and needing to get over water. He has to sacrifice control for power, risk the ball veering off-course, and he still might not have the reach necessary.
The Colorado offense thrived by turning as many games as possible into rounds on a Par 3 or Executive course, where the long ball was rarely required. Sanders would be well-served by landing in a similar situation at the NFL level.
He’d probably fit best in a “Spread Coast” offense, like what Mike McDaniel or Kyle Shanahan run. In those types of offense, his strengths would fit well with the scheme and his limitations are accounted for by the coach’s philosophy.
Other prospects have similar concerns, though coming from different directions. No coach in their right mind would ask Jalen Milroe to run the “Peyton Manning” offense, for instance.
Teams will also have to decide for themselves whether Sanders fits their philosophy, scheme, and team construction. Assuming he lands in a situation that’s a good fit, Sanders should be able to be a competent starter in the NFL.
Ultimately, whether he succeeds or fails at the NFL level will likely come down to his intangibles.
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