Deion Sanders has been building toward this breakthrough for almost 40 years.
And there’s no one better than Coach Prime to flip the NFL Draft upside down in 2025.
Sanders – also known as Prime Time and Neon Deion –coached two of the top prospects in a draft that will soon receive its annual white-hot spotlight during the combine in Indianapolis.
Travis Hunter won the recent Heisman Trophy by honoring the NFL/MLB talent of Prime Time and playing two football positions at once.
But it’s Sanders’ son, Shedeur, who could leave a lasting mark on the NFL by throwing his weight around as a 23-year-old with Name, Image and Likeness money to burn.
“I personally have Shedeur Sanders rated above Cam Ward,” NFL Draft analyst Simon Clancy exclusively told talkSPORT.
“But I would suspect that Ward will go over Sanders, just because of some peripheral, off-the-field stuff.”
The former Colorado quarterback and current top-10 NFL Draft prospect received an NIL valuation of $5.1 million last September and was attached to a Rolls Royce valued at $400,000.
Which means that if the future NFL QB wanted to pull a 2004 Eli Manning and update the bold move with serious ’25 swagger, Coach Prime’s son could surely afford a lengthy professional holdout.
Shedeur has been linked this week in mock drafts with the Las Vegas Raiders, New York Giants and New York Jets.
Those failing franchises posted a combined 12-39 record last season, and there’s a reason they’re all picking in the top-six.
They’ve been poorly run internally and have been even worse between the lines.
AFPDeion Sanders talked the talk and walked the walk as a two-sport pro[/caption]
GettyCoach Prime always has his son’s back[/caption]
Just ask Derek Carr, Daniel Jones and Aaron Rodgers.
The inescapable Tom Brady could eventually make the Raiders good again.
But the Jets or Giants for Shedeur?
Ewwww.
Enter Neon Deion, who has been hinting for months that he doesn’t want Shedeur to waste his early pro years playing for a pathetic football team – or in a bitterly cold city during the winter months.
“There’s teams I didn’t wanna play for,” Sanders recently said on the Dan Patrick Show. “I’m a real dad that has a lot of information about the NFL. … I know what’s behind the curtain.”
“I would meet with them behind closed doors. I would not call them out. I would not put them on front street and talk about their organization.
“I would meet with them privately and talk about my concerns so we could have an understanding.”
Sanders has been teasing a stalemate for months.
The NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement is heavily titled in favor of billionaire owners and a massive league that trounces the Premier League in annual revenue.
But all it takes is one huge holdout to knock over the cart and threaten to break a $20 billion system.
Shedeur, who threw for 7,364 yards, 64 touchdowns and 71.8 completion percentage as a Buffalo, has been guided since birth by one of the flashiest and most outspoken athletes in history.
Prime Time
Shedeur Sanders
Position: Quarterback
Age: 23
College: Colorado
Vitals: 6ft 2in, 215 lbs
Stats: 7,364 passing yards, 64 touchdowns, 71.8 completion percentage
NFL Draft expert comparison: Tua Tagovailoa
Sanders understands the rules behind the rules, and he turned athletic self-promotion into high art before the internet existed.
What if Coach Prime stood in the way of the Giants drafting Shedeur, or forced the Jets to trade away their precious No. 7 overall pick?
Some fans would hate Shedeur getting in the way of another 5-12 season in New York.
Others would celebrate Sanders and his talented son for giving the old-fashioned No. 1 salute to out-of-touch billionaires who are only in charge of NFL teams because they made their cash in another industry.
Shedeur declining to throw at the combine isn’t a real story.
Jayden Daniels and Caleb Williams did the same last year, then combined for 7,109 yards and 45 TDs as NFL rookies.
“Him (Shedeur) not throwing at the combine is completely irrelevant,” Clancy said.
“I’d much rather watch 10 or 15 Colorado games than see him throwing in shorts in an airless stadium with 60 people sitting in the stands. That is irrelevant to me.
“I want to see on tape and see how he reacts, in terms of how he deals with pressure, all of those things that are important.”
Manning boldly said no to the Chargers in 2004, forcing Los Angeles to trade its No. 1 pick to the Giants in a blockbuster that led to two Super Bowl trophies and two drastically altered franchises.
Coach Prime and Shedeur could have absolute power in 2025 – if they stick together and say no to an annual NFL loser.
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