On the NFL Mix in late February, Shedeur Sanders was requested a innocent query about how Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur’s professional background had ready Sanders for an NFL offense.
Sanders praised Shurmur as “amazing” however rapidly pivoted his reply right into a dare to his doubters, in case outsiders had missed how Sanders had thrived with “six different” coordinators at two faculty packages.
“I’m able to adjust to any offense and every scheme and make it work,” Sanders stated. “We went from Jackson State to Colorado and changed two programs back-to-back. So you don’t think I could come to an NFL franchise and change the program again? It’s history. We’ve done it again. It’s always gonna repeat itself.”
Confidence is one factor. Cockiness is one other. Confidence connotes mature dedication. Cockiness usually displays some stage of immaturity and insecurity.
Sanders’ persona and tone have been described as shades of each throughout this pre-draft course of. Neither solidifies nor disqualifies him as a productive future professional.
A cocky Baker Mayfield was the No. 1 total decide of all the 2018 NFL Draft and has gone to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
However Sanders’ relentless assertiveness, which borders at instances on bravado, does make his analysis extra sophisticated than the soccer on the sphere for the Giants.
Joe Schoen must hit on each the particular person and the participant when he selects the Giants’ subsequent franchise quarterback.
Schoen stated final week that the most effective leaders at quarterback have “the flexibility to encourage and get individuals to comply with, to deliver the crew up when issues are down and encourage the remainder of the group.
“We talk about it a lot: You’re the face of the franchise,” Schoen stated. “People are watching you, all eyes are on you, and your work ethic, how you approach the game, your ability to interact and connect teammates across both sides of the ball, offense, defense. I think that’s all really important at that position specifically.”
He’s heard loads of it, too, because the son of NFL Corridor of Famer Deion Sanders, Colorado’s present head coach.
“When you talk about the New York Football Giants and New York media market, we’ve been asked can he handle the media pressure? And I start laughing,” Schwartz-Morini stated in February. “I can’t think of any student-athlete that can handle the media quite like he can.”
One NFL govt, in the meantime, in comparison with Sanders to Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons as a proficient prospect whose phrases can generally create lower than favorable headlines.
“He has really good habits on the field and loves ball,” the scout stated. “But he also says a lot of things that rub people the wrong way and creates distractions off the field with things he says.”
Take Sanders’ tweet one yr in the past in April 2024: A former Colorado Buffalo participant named Xavier Smith criticized his father, Deion Sanders, for the way he dealt with the switch portal with out enough compassion for gamers’ fates.
Shedeur Sanders retweeted the story and wrote of Smith: “Ion [don’t] even remember him tbh. Bro had to be very mid at best.”
That could possibly be seen as an unflattering method to discuss a former teammate, or it could possibly be seen as a son merely defending his father.
That is a part of why the Giants have achieved a lot work on Sanders for therefore lengthy, together with their latest non-public exercise deep into the NFL Draft course of with solely days remaining earlier than of the draft: there are lots of layers to this vocal son of an all-time nice who’s already a well-marketed media star within the NIL age of faculty sports activities.
He wasn’t simply showing on nationwide TV reveals at Tremendous Bowl Radio Row, for instance; he additionally hosted his personal podcast there, 2Legendary with Shedeur Sanders powered by Extra time, with a full crew and set supporting him. His embracing of the limelight — and his harnessing of it by means of proactive phrases or actions — arguably could possibly be precisely what the Giants must climb out of irrelevance.
“I’m most proud about my mental, because I know nothing can phase me, no pressure, no situation, these cameras,” Sanders stated. “Nothing phases me. I grew up with it.”
The non-public exercise at Colorado was as a lot about persevering with to vet Sanders as the long run face of their franchise because it was about coach Brian Daboll taking yet another take a look at the participant.
Analyst Todd McShay then reported a divide within the Giants’ constructing on Sanders throughout Monday’s episode of The McShay Present on The Ringer:
“As of 48 hours ago, there’s still a little push from the personnel department … I can’t say individually who it is, but apparently someone on that side — or multiple people on that side — are more [saying], ‘Let’s really consider Shedeur at three,” McShay stated, referring to the No. 3 total decide. “There’s a little bit more of a push from the personnel people and … the coaching staff, obviously headed by Brian Daboll the head coach, is anti-taking Shedeur at three.”
“If you can’t make that deep throw to the sideline,” the supply stated, referring to one of many considerations popping out of Sanders’ professional day exercise, “then nothing else matters.”
Sanders’ presentation of himself nonetheless completely has been a constant dialogue level within the league.
Again in February on the NFL Mix, insider Josina Anderson reported {that a} quarterback coach from a crew drafting within the prime seven had referred to Sanders coming off as “brash” and “arrogant” in his crew interview.
Anderson made it a degree to say the QB coach was off-base and “seem to have issue with ‘the culture’ of athletes who have broad fame and financial success before entering the NFL.” However that QB coach was not the one evaluator who felt that Sanders acted as if the groups wanted to impress him, slightly than the opposite method round.
“You think I’m worried about what critics say or what people gotta say?” Sanders stated on the mix. “You know who my dad is? They hated on him, too. So it’s almost normal. Without people hating, it’s not normal for us. We like the adversity. We like everything that comes with the name. That’s why we are who we are.”
Quick ahead to April, and Sanders was requested about being known as brash and boastful.
“I don’t care,” he stated on the Up & Adams Present. “I truly don’t care what nobody has to say with those type of words.”
Perhaps that is precisely what the Giants want of their present place: a assured franchise quarterback who pushes again exhausting in opposition to critics, who hears every part the doubters say and has a solution for them. Come to think about it, that sounds loads like Schoen.
It’s on the Giants now to get on the identical web page, a method or one other.
“If you ain’t trying to change the franchise or the culture, don’t get me,” Sanders stated on the mix. “You should know history repeats itself over and over and over. And I’ve done it over and over and over. So there should be no question why an NFL franchise should pick me.”
