Thirty-six years ago, Deion Sanders turned the 1989 NFL draft into his own television show. The 21-year-old cornerback sat on a couch wearing a white jumpsuit with a black “Prime Time” logo and sported a store’s worth of jewelry on his neck, wrists and fingers. The camera lights made his jheri curl sparkle. After manipulating his way to Atlanta with the No. 5 pick — and avoiding Detroit at No. 3 — Sanders grinned and showcased his mischievous bravado.
“I was so happy,” he told ESPN reporter Andrea Kremer. “I was kinda scared. I thought Detroit was going to take me. I would’ve asked for so much money they would’ve had to put me on layaway.”
A room of family and friends laughed. And thus began an inexorable march to the Hall of Fame for the player and his persona.
Now 57, Sanders sat on a stage recently wearing a Colorado hoodie with a “Coach Prime” logo. The salt in his beard overwhelmed the pepper. He yielded to the humility of fatherhood.
“My kids don’t have that luxury of saying where they want to go,” Sanders said.
It was as close to a concession speech as Sanders will ever give. He’s not in control anymore. His influence has limitations.
When the 2025 draft begins Thursday, there will be no layaway jokes, only nerves. Dad is bracing for the possibility that Shilo, a 25-year-old safety, may not get drafted. And then there is Shedeur, a 23-year-old with franchise-quarterback upside, who finally will be on his own soon.
For certain, there’s a place in the NFL for Shedeur. The debate is whether it will be as cozy as the family hopes. Widely considered the second-best QB in the 2025 draft, he should be selected in the first round, but if he falls on the wrong side of the polarizing opinions about him, he could suffer through a longer wait. His uncertain fate is the most compelling story of this event, and Papa Prime would have it no other way. Shedeur was the inspiration for his dad’s college football takeover, and with the legendary athlete and attention magnet acting as father/strategist/hype man, Shedeur roamed from Jackson State to Colorado, throwing for 14,327 yards and 134 touchdowns over four seasons and becoming the most accurate passer in the college game.
Draft night marks the end of a controversial but successful effort that elevated Shedeur from an unheralded prospect to an inescapable one. With the coach inviting the spotlight, we’ve watched Shedeur a lot. But have we really seen him? We think we know too much about him, but really, we know very little. The privilege Prime provided is about to diminish, but so will the prejudice.
Sanders must stand as himself. Or maybe, he gets to stand as himself. The next phase of his career will be the ultimate test of who he is and what he is made of, sans the preconceived assumptions that come from being You Know Who’s son.
Make way, Prime Time. All that matters now is departure time.
“We’re built for this,” the father said. “They’ve been through this. They’ve got this.”
At least Shilo spent two seasons at South Carolina. This will be Shedeur’s first trek beyond the Papa Prime universe. Deion has been his coach since youth football. It was a gift, having a legend with an exacting standard showing him the path. It also was a crutch, knowing every system, at every level, catered to him.
“I didn’t know your parents being involved and wanting the best for you is a problem,” Shedeur said in January, dismissing criticism of his father’s guidance.
Dad did a terrific job implementing a bold vision. Shedeur is not some risk-averse product of a former defensive player’s teachings. He is aggressive, yet highly efficient. At 6-foot-1 and 212 pounds, he doesn’t have ideal size and his arm strength is modest. But he has a veteran’s feel for playing the position, recognizing coverages quickly, throwing with anticipation and exhibiting uncanny precision when throwing into tight windows. In his game, you can see shades of Baker Mayfield and Tua Tagovailoa at their best.
He has flaws, however. In two seasons at Colorado, Shedeur was sacked 94 times, which led all Football Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks, and a shoddy offensive line doesn’t explain it all. NFL talent evaluators are concerned about his pocket awareness, particularly his inability to step up and climb the pocket when he feels pressure. Shedeur has a bad habit of moving backward and trying to spin out of the pass rush, which often leads to huge chunks of negative yardage. It’s a problem that has turned many promising quarterbacks into erratic wild cards at the pro level.
Is it possible to teach a brash Sanders a new way? This is where being the child of a swaggering king hurts Shedeur. He is not like his father, who purposely created a character to make himself more marketable. Still, Shedeur has some pompous tendencies, flexing with his luxury watches on the field and dismissing accountability during a few postgame interviews.
The concern isn’t his attitude. All in all, he presents as a good kid with no major character red flags. But you must wonder about his mentality. He has been able to develop with a level of comfort that won’t exist in the NFL. He has never dealt with a quarterback controversy or even a true competition. Prime wasn’t giving anyone a chance to take his spot. Now, though, Shedeur will be under heavy scrutiny unless he enjoys a Jayden Daniels-like debut.
It’s interesting that most draftniks think Cam Ward, the presumptive No. 1 overall pick, has distanced himself from Shedeur, his friend and training partner. The perception is there’s a significant gap between the two. While Ward has a higher ceiling because of his electric arm, he’s also raw for a top pick. And the advantage of Shedeur’s pedigree is how polished he seems by comparison. Ward, the zero-star recruit whose high school team executed a run-heavy wing-T offense, has a triumphant underdog story. And Shedeur gets punished for being a legacy athlete.
If the NFL draft is a game of subterfuge, don’t put it past teams to embellish the weaknesses of a quarterback whose surname immediately makes him polarizing. It’s an easy way to muddle the process. It’s also a way to humble Shedeur, just in case he has been watching his father’s old interviews.
Leave it to Pittsburgh Coach Mike Tomlin to cut through the nonsense. The Steelers need a short- and long-term answer at quarterback, and if Shedeur falls to No. 21, he could be the solution. Tomlin seems to like Shedeur, and he is the type of coach who could bring out the best in him.
“There’s a toughness there that doesn’t get talked about enough,” Tomlin said. “The intangible qualities displayed on tape were very impressive to me.”
For Shedeur Sanders, the draft begins a voyage of self-discovery. Who is he without his dad? Before he can show us, he needs to find out for himself.
