Former NFL star and current Colorado coach Deion Sanders has made it clear that his son, Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders, will decide where he's selected in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Coach Sanders said the same applies to Colorado two-way star cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter.
In other words, the man affectionately known as Neon Deion is aiming to take center stage at the NFL's big event a year from now. And making it clear which teams you won't play for is actually nothing new. Back in 2004, then Ole Miss QB Eli Manning and his father Archie said that Eli would never play for the San Diego Chargers — who at the time, owned the No. 1 overall pick.
Deion said the same would apply to Shedeur and Hunter.
"I know where I want them to go," Deion Sanders told the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast. "So, it's certain cities that ain't going to happen. It's going to be an Eli."
It sure worked out well for Eli, who won two Super Bowls as the star QB of the New York Giants. That said, Shedeur still has a season left at Colorado. Anything can happen between now and next April.
Basically, his draft stock can rise ... or fall.
For now, Deion Sanders seems to prefer Baltimore, Dallas, San Franciso or Washington when it comes to cities he considers the right fit for his players.
"There were certain cities that fit [for me]," Deion Sanders said about being drafted by the Falcons in 1989. "Atlanta fit, and I want that for my kids. All of them. I want the right fit. [Atlanta] was the first time I saw Black people in positions of authority. It blew my mind. It was real in Atlanta. I had never seen anything like that in my life."
Now, Colorado finished just 4-8 this past season, so it hasn't been real high on the priority list for NFL scouts. If you can't win in the Pac-12, odds are you won't have much success in, say, the NFC East.
But that won't keep Deion from promoting Colorado and its players, especially when one of those players is his son.
