He’s sure to be one of college football’s hottest commodities leading up to the 2025 NFL draft, and now he’s set to play his final college game at AT&T Stadium.
Some believe it could be a preview of where he’ll suit up as a pro, too.
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders has committed to the East-West Shrine Bowl, to be played Jan. 30 at the home venue of the Cowboys in Arlington. The annual all-star contest was held last year at the team’s headquarters, The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco.
It’s a massive get for the Shrine Bowl, which competes with the Reese’s Senior Bowl for the best collegiate players to showcase each year but has generally lagged behind in terms of pre-draft clout, marquee value, and playing caliber of the prospects involved.
This one commitment has the potential to instantly flip that for 2025.
Showtime ⌚️
QB Shedeur Sanders (@ShedeurSanders) from @CUBuffsFootball has officially accepted his invite to the 100th East-West #ShrineBowl!#GoBuffs | #ShrineBowlWHOSNEXT 😎 pic.twitter.com/L4gNdOa5jj
— East-West Shrine Bowl (@ShrineBowl) November 20, 2024
Sanders is the 22-year-old son of Cowboys dynasty-era icon and Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders, who currently serves as Colorado’s head coach. After leading Jackson State to prominence and then departing for Boulder in 2023, Deion has turned the Buffaloes into a top-20 team, developed two-way phenom Travis Hunter into a leading Heisman Trophy candidate, and turned his son into a household name among elite quarterback prospects.
Along the way, Deion has emerged as a name to watch for the next round of NFL head-coach openings, particularly in Dallas, where Mike McCarthy has led a struggling Cowboys team to a disappointing 3-7 record and is on the final year of a contract that will expire once the season is over… just before the Shrine Bowl.
Deion has said publicly that he has no interest in leaving Colorado, but many wonder how motivated he’d be to stay once Shedeur and his other son Shilo- who plays safety for CU, is already a grad student, will also be eligible for the draft, and has also committed to the Shrine Bowl- have moved on.
Additionally, Deion has said that he’ll be very involved in the draft process for both of his sons and Hunter- that he’d intervene if a team he feels wouldn’t be a good fit were to select any of them. And of course, his decades-long close relationship with the most valuable sports franchise on earth and owner Jerry Jones is well-documented.
In short, there are just too many dots there for observers not to connect, too many coincidences not to wonder “what if?”
Just this week, former Cowboys teammate Michael Irvin said in an interview that, if the Cowboys were to draft Shedeur in the spring, “I believe 100 percent” that Deion would accept a head coaching job with the organization.
“And I can tell you,” he continued with a knowing grin, “good sources have told me that.”
The Cowboys will certainly get a good, long look at Shedeur in January. While the all-star game itself is a draw for fans, NFL coaches and scouts value the week of practices leading up to the game even more. The Athletic‘s Dane Brugler notes that this year, the Shrine Bowl “has several interesting modifications planned to enhance the week of practice for the quarterbacks in attendance.”
And whether he’s talking shop with Shedeur, Deion, or both, Jones will have tons of insider access to them, given his role as the owner and chief spokesman for the stadium where the game is being played. (Just look at how much airtime he got during the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight the venue hosted last weekend.)
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This September, the Cowboys gave quarterback Dak Prescott a new four-year contract worth $240 million. But experts point out that such deals always have some sort of early escape hatch built in for the team. Prescott is currently on injured reserve, out for the rest of the 2024 season with a hamstring injury suffered in Week 9.
Cowboys Wire’s latest mock draft looks at a scenario where the team drafts Shedeur in the first round, lets him learn the ropes under a recuperating Prescott in 2025, and then trades Prescott (to a team he must approve) and hands the reins to Sanders.
Between Shedeur, Deion, McCarthy, Prescott, and Jones, there are a lot of moving parts to the whole saga.
But, coincidentally or not, all of the main characters will converge in the Metroplex for what is shaping up to be a possibly monumental week in January.
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