The NFL’s version of Halley’s Comet comes around every 21 years. It’s due to make another appearance in April 2025.
From John Elway in 1983 to Eli Manning in 2004, highly-rated quarterbacks rarely make a draft-day power play. Twenty-one years after Eli, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders could.
Via C. Isaiah Smalls II of the Miami Herald, Colorado coach (and Shedeur’s father) Deion Sanders recently hinted at the possibility of steering Shedeur to the Miami Dolphins.
It happened on an episode of the Nightcap podcast.
“What do you do business-wise if you’re the Dolphins?” Sanders said. “Do you take a quarterback, which is what I’m saying, or do you say, ‘Tua, let’s check this out, let’s see what we’re going to do.’ Is his health more important than that?”
Co-host Chad Johnson eventually realized Deion was saying the Dolphins should draft Shedeur.
“So you just got the revelation, huh?” Sanders said.
At their current pace, the Dolphins might do poorly enough to earn their way to getting Shedeur. Things get interesting if some other team is in position to draft Sheduer and Deion makes it clear, publicly or privately, that he won’t let Shedeur go to any team other than the Dolphins.
“I want what’s best for him,” Deion said of Shedeur. “I want him to be happy as well. You really don’t get to dictate where your son gets to go because there’s a draft process, but you know us. You know how we are, we know who ain’t trying to win in the NFL. You know who’s consistently in the basement year after year after year. You don’t want that situation for your kid or your family members. Nobody, none of them. So we know what time it is.”
It’s time to look at something Deion said in March.
“I know where I want them to go,” Deion said on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, regarding Shedeur and teammate Travis Hunter. “So, it’s certain cities that ain’t gonna happen. It’s going to be an Eli.”
The possibility of Shedeur going to Miami presumes that Tua Tagovailoa will no longer be there. Unless he retires despite being cleared to play, that would be a very expensive proposition for Miami.
The broader point is that, whether it’s Miami or some other team, Deion can — and should — help Shedeur get his career started in the right place. Look at all of the quarterbacks who struggled with their initial teams and who are now flourishing. Incoming quarterbacks absolutely should be willing to avoid bad teams to start their careers. And to make their way to good ones.
So, yes, Deion. Do what you have to do to get Shedeur where he needs to be.