2025 NFL Draft: Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders Breakdown

During Tom Brady’s rookie season, he found himself alone in a room with his quarterback coach’s notebook. Like any of us would do, Brady opened it up and found an evaluation of himself.

As Brady described it in the 2001 Patriots America’s Game documentary, it said, “Slow on reads. Slow to react. Doesn’t deliver the ball on time.

Everything he needs to do, he needs to do quicker.”

That same description could be applied to Shedeur Sanders.

Get 50% off if you subscribe before the last day of the NFL Draft!

As a thrower and a runner, Sanders does not have elite talent. He’s an accurate passer, but that’s sometimes impacted by his inability to drive the ball with velocity on certain throws. He has some evasiveness and can make plays while scrambling, but he’s not special enough to live that way as frequently as he does.

For Sanders to be successful in the NFL, he’ll need to get the ball out quickly and to the right place. He’ll need to be precise with his timing. He’ll need to throw with anticipation consistently and be disciplined with his footwork and pocket presence.

Right now, he’s not quite that type of player. He’s the quarterback that still needs to do the most important things quicker.

Sanders is comparable to Geno Smith in terms of those key attributes like timing, anticipation, and decision-making. But Smith is far more gifted as a thrower and can get away with more.

Sanders needs to model his game after someone like Brock Purdy. They have more comparable physical skills, but Purdy is far ahead in terms of timing, anticipation, and decision-making.

And that’s where I think Sanders’ ceiling is - somewhere between Purdy and Geno.

Of course, as the Tom Brady example above showed, there might be room for development far greater than what anyone can see or predict at the moment. But you can say that about anyone.

Sanders will need a good system and talent around him to be successful. He is unlikely to transcend a bad roster. Which means a team picking at the top of the draft that has holes in too many places would be making a risky bet by taking him.

Now let’s dive into the film.

An Accurate Passer

Sanders does have some important traits working for him that always give a quarterback the chance to flourish. Namely, he’s an accurate passer:

Sanders has an over-the-top motion and a good release point that he maintains at all times. That means he’s less likely to have passes batted down at the line and more likely to be able to replicate his mechanics. That should continue to lead to consistent ball placement.

He also has good touch and the ability to drop the ball in the bucket:

Sanders can consistently put the ball where he wants to while on the run, whether moving left or right:

Needs More Velocity

Arm strength isn’t everything, but it can certainly make a difference. This is generally an area where quarterbacks can make marginal improvements in the NFL, but not dramatic ones.

Sanders’ arm isn’t anything to write home about. In fact, he struggles to get velocity on the ball when he can’t step into his throws:

Below is a great example of how that lack of arm strength can be consequential.

Watch Sanders try to deliver this ball into the honey-hole vs. cover-2. He stepped in the bucket here, which got his energy moving away from this throw just enough to leave the ball hanging in the air. That allowed the safety to close and arrive at the receiver just as the ball did, knocking it up into the air for the interception:

Here’s one more example of the ball losing steam on a pass where Sanders couldn’t get his body into the throw. This time, he was on the run and falling away from his receiver:

Timing

The lack of arm strength wouldn’t be an issue if Sanders played with great timing. But he really didn’t show the consistent ability to do so while at Colorado.

Sure there were times where he proved that he was capable:

The throws above are great examples of how Sanders needs to play to be successful in the NFL. But he needs to do it more frequently. There need to be more anticipation throws.

Some of the problem is mechanics-based and therefore more easily correctable. For instance, on the throw below, Sanders’ footwork impacted his ability to get this ball out on time, leading to a missed opportunity:

Sanders should have at least been starting his throwing motion right about here:

And certainly by this point:

But he didn’t get it out in time because of his drop. Take another look from the end zone angle:

I’m not sure exactly what type of drop that was, but it kept Colorado from putting 6 on the board.

And this wasn’t a one-time occurrence. You could see him do the same thing on this interception vs. Arizona: