As Shedeur Sanders prepares for the next chapter of his football career, one question rises above all others about his NFL future: how will Deion Sanders impact his son's future?
Will the Colorado head coach force teams to think twice about selecting his son because of his own NFL aspirations? Would a head coach like Brian Callahan, who isn't guaranteed a long-term run in Tennesee, want to have one of the most popular men in the football world constantly talking down his efforts in an attempt to maybe take over in 2026 over picking Miami's Cam Ward?
Discussing that very idea on Pro Football Focus, Mike Florio noted that the elder Sanders has created an unusual situation for NFL teams, as Shedeur could be a model citizen while his father does his dirty work “Prime” style behind the scenes.
“Shedeur's first NFL head coach also will have to be wired to shrug at any comments from Deion regarding the reason for any struggles that Shedeur might experience,” Florio wrote. “Will Deion blame it on the quality of the roster around him? Will Deion blame it on the coaching? Plenty of coaches might get skittish about the Deion factor. They might think that, by signing off on Shedeur, they'll be signing their eventual pink slip.”
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An interesting idea? Well, wait, Florio decided to take things a step further, noting that where quarterbacks like John Elway or Eli Manning had to put their personal reputations on the line to pursue a preferred landing spots, Sanders could let his father do that for him, with the threat of the Colorado coach's career prospects and megaphone potentially scaring away teams he doesn't like.
“It's a way to engineer Shedeur's landing spot without pulling an Elway or an Eli. Shedeur can say without hesitation that he'll play for anyone. And any coach who would feel threatened by the possibility of Deion eyeing his job won't want Shedeur,” Florio wrote. “Those coaches will look for negatives, whether it's ‘he's arrogant and brash' or ‘he's not big enough to take NFL hits' or whatever else the ‘anonymous evaluators' will be spreading to folks in the media who will willingly run with it. Chances are, Deion knows exactly where he wants Shedeur to go. And if it means sliding out of the top five or the top 10 or the top 20, so be it. Lose the battle, win the war.”
Is Florio on the money? Will the Sanders family be able to more or less pick where Shedeur ends up playing, be that in Las Vegas, Dallas, or another pro-Deion landing spot? It's hard to say, but considering how much drama is going on around Sanders so far this offseason, it's safe to say the topic will remain hotly discussed well into the future.