Coach Prime says he’ll “quietly” pull an Eli for Shedeur Sanders in case of an emergency in 2025 NFL Draft

Coach Prime remains keen on protecting son’s Shedeur Sanders landing spot in the NFL Draft, just don’t expect any explosive remarks or full-blown news coming from their camp ahead of the event. Still, the Colorado head coach could pull some kind of an Eli Manning maneuver.

In his Monday press conference at the University of Colorado, Deion Sanders addressed if he would do anything to sway teams that are not in the right situation away from selecting Shedeur. The coach said if he had to, he would do it away from the spotlight.

“My kids don’t have the luxury of saying where they want to go. We would never do such a thing. And I told you if that would come to that, I would quietly talk to that team behind the curtains. I would never put them on blast for nothing of the sort,” Coach Prime said (19:09).

Just like Eli Manning, Shedeur Sanders is the son of a former NFL standout—in Shedeur’s case a Hall of Famer—which would give them the leverage to push back on some undesirable situations. In Eli’s case, his father Archie mentioned he would not play for the then-San Diego Chargers.

After the Chargers selected him with the first overall pick anyway, they forced a trade with the New York Giants in which the former Ole Miss quarterback went to the Big Apple in exchange for Philip Rivers among other compensation.

Shedeur Sanders is widely considered the second-best quarterback in the Draft behind Miami’s Cam Ward. The former Colorado signal-caller could go in the top five of April’s Draft.

Coach Prime also recalled his draft process and how it was different from what Shedeur and Shilo will face.

“They (Shedeur and Shilo) receive a lot more ignorance than I did. I received some, but we didn’t have the social media channels and a lot of different things that’s privy today… You gotta understand I was a two-spot guy at the time. So you can imagine what it would have been like with all the hate and the naysayers.

I was a little different. It was a team that I wanted to go to that I made it possible for me to go to that team and that team only because I had the leverage of playing baseball”, Coach Prime said.

Deion Sanders was then drafted by the Atlanta Falcons, where he played for five seasons in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Coach Prime praises sons’ work before the Draft

With different expectations for Shedeur and Shilo Sanders in next month’s NFL Draft, Deion Sanders praised how they have been preparing ahead of the event.

“Shilo is working his butt off. I can’t wait to him run the 40 and do his drills because he’s been working with (Andreu) Swasey on all of that… Shedeur is a workaholic, you guys know that. He is who he is and sometimes people forget what he’s accomplished here at CU,” Coach Prime said.

While Shedeur is expected to go at the top of the Draft, Shilo is trying to improve his stock, as he is projected to be a late-round pick or an undrafted free agent. The safety has been working with conditioning coach Andreu Swasey to improve ahead of the event.