2025 NFL Draft Film Study: Shedeur Sanders (QB, Colorado)

Will the most divisive player in college football be the No. 1 pick in 2025?

Shedeur Sanders is quickly establishing himself as the most divisive player in college football.

The Colorado Buffaloes quarterback is the current Vegas favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. However, almost immediately after those odds released, Sanders found himself in hot water for criticizing a former teammate.

Former Colorado safety Xavier Smith outlined his experience with the Buffaloes and how he felt that it had destroyed the confidence of multiple players. Sanders responded by claiming that Smith “had to be very mid” in a tough look for a potential NFL quarterback.

Off-field antics aside, I wanted to take a look at Sanders’ profile and some tape of the Colorado quarterback to see if he had already done enough to establish himself as the No. 1 prospect in 2025.

After watching the tape, it’s safe to say that Sanders is far from a finished product, but there are some flashes of a player who could be an NFL starter.

Stats and Background

The son of former NFL superstar and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, Shedeur originally played for his dad at Jackson State. The two moved to Boulder prior to this past season, where Shedeur unsurprisingly was named the starting quarterback.

Shedeur filled the stat sheet at Jackson State, racking up nearly 7,000 passing yards with 70 passing touchdowns and 14 interceptions in two seasons. There was naturally going to be some drop off heading to Colorado, but Sanders still put respectable numbers. He finished the year completing 69.3 percent of his passes for 3,230 yards, 27 touchdowns, and just three interceptions.

Some advanced stats bode well for Sanders as an NFL quarterback. His turnover-worthy play rate of 1.6 percent was tied for the fourth-best mark in the FBS, tied with Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels.

Sanders was also a big-time playmaker when going deep. When throwing 20-plus yards downfield, he completed 41.1 percent of his passes for 11 touchdowns and just one interception.

Other metrics weren’t as friendly towards Sanders. Pro Football Focus had credited Sanders with 39 pressures created by his own fault, tied with Caleb Williams for the most in college football. He was also responsible for 13 of his own sacks, tied for third in the FBS.

Not surprisingly, these advanced metrics tell a similar story to what you see on tape.

Film Study

There are some qualities of Sanders’ game that will intrigue NFL scouts. The issue is that there are too many concerns that tie into his strengths that need to be addressed and corrected in 2024.

One of Sanders’ biggest bad habits is patting the ball before throwing. It’s not the end of the world for some quarterbacks, but for Sanders, it impacts his timing and ability to get the ball out quickly.

While it’s a completion, more exact timing to get the ball out as the receiver sticks his out-breaking route could allow him to make a player after the catch.

Other parts of Sanders drop and footwork suffer when he’s not playing in structure. However, when he’s not overthinking and able to get the ball out quickly, it looks much more natural.

The quick passing game is effective for Sanders, and allowed him to get his confidence and find his groove behind an offensive line that genuinely struggled to give him a clean pocket last season.

Sanders also had a very good feel for the swing screen game. For concepts like these to work, it’s vital that the quarterback gets the ball in front of the skill player so that they can run up to it, or at least not have to stop or slow down.

This allows the ball carrier to get the ball at maximum speed to make them a legitimate YAC threat. Sanders seems to have no problem setting up his teammates for success in this part of his game.

As far as his arm talent, Sanders throws a suitable deep ball. He doesn’t have the arm strength of top NFL quarterbacks, but he is at least capable of getting the ball 50-plus yards downfield when given a clean throwing platform.

The bigger concern with Sanders’ deep ball is his throwing style when going deep. Specifically, Sanders can try to rely too much on arm talent, sacrificing power from his lower body.

There are too many instances of Sanders not being able to hit his receiver with zip because of poor weight transfer from his back foot onto his front. This shows up particularly when Sanders feels pressure.

Notice how Sanders is content with throwing off his back foot here. He avoids getting hit on the throw, but stepping into it and taking a hit might have allowed for a more accurate pass downfield.

I don’t blame Sanders for bailing out, for the record. He was sacked 52 times last season behind an offensive line that routinely missed pass protection assignments and left him running for his life.

A better offensive line in 2024 should help Sanders, but he needs to help himself as well. As noted in the advanced metrics, too many pressures and sacks are his own fault, and his pocket presence needs to drastically improve next season.

When Sanders feels pressure, he tends to try to roll out rather than step up, even when there’s space to scramble straight upfield. This is a great example of that, with Sanders rolling out into a sack.

Improving his pocket presence needs to be Sanders’ top priority this offseason. Not only will it drastically reduce his pressure and sack numbers, but it will also allow him to take advantage of his mobility.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of Sanders’ evaluation is that he was given at least some control of Colorado’s offense with pre-snap adjustments. This play against Colorado State is a great example of the control he already has over running an offense.

After the Rams finish getting set, Sanders recognizes a mismatch in the secondary. He proceeds to make a pre-snap adjustment with the line as he gives a signal to the receivers to change the play.

(We’re just going to ignore the signal and move on.)

There are NFL-caliber traits in Sanders’ game. His arm and mobility are solid, he can get the ball out quickly, and he already has experiencing handling pre-snap adjustments for an offense.

The questions that scouts will have are big ones, however. Can he take a step forward in 2024? What kinds of off-field distractions is he dealing with? Is he mature enough to command respect from his teammates at the NFL level?

None of these are getting answered this summer. Still, if you had to take any player with the No. 1 pick in 2025, Sanders shouldn’t be on that shortlist.

At least not yet.