Prime’s Plan: Deion wants Shedeur to avoid NFL’s frosty fields

Many gurus think Shedeur Sanders will be the top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft but if Deion Sanders gets his way, the city selecting first overall will be one without snow.

The head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes and father of Shedeur appeared on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio with Chris Russo where he talked about fellow Pac-12 quarterback Caleb Willaims likely going No. 1 to the Chicago Bears. Coach Prime pivoted to talk about how the Windy City’s weather could impact the USC star.

“Let me tell you something that I have a problem with,” Deion said on the radio. “And this kid can flat-out play, I think he’s the best one on the board this year for sure. A kid that’s coming from California for the last couple of years, right? And went to Oklahoma. That’s not terribly cold. Chicago’s cold, man. You gotta think about that kind of stuff when you’re taking a young man. Like see, when you take a guy from Ohio State and you bring him to Chicago, OK, I could understand that. But from California to Chicago? Not only that, they added what? One or two more games in the NFL. Seventeen games. Come on, man. You gotta factor in that stuff. That stuff matters.”

Williams is all but set to go to Chicago after his Heisman-winning career with the Trojans wrapped up a few months ago. Sanders fell to five in his 1989 NFL Draft, because three Hall of Famers went ahead of him. Prime-Time himself ended up in the Hall of Fame and went down as one of the greatest multi-sport athletes of all time. Despite playing far more than 17 games a season when counting his baseball career too, Sanders rarely played in the cold. The Florida-born star played the majority of his football career in Atlanta and Dallas and his baseball career was split mainly between Atlanta and Cincinnati.

His son, Shedeur, is from Texas and has also mostly stayed away from cold weather in his life.

“Like, I don’t want my kid [Shedeur] going nowhere cold next year. He grew up in Texas. He played in Jackson, played in Colorado. Season’s over before it gets cold in Colorado,” Sanders told Russo. “I’m just thinking way ahead. I don’t want that for him.”

Pro Football Talk pointed out that the last two big-name quarterbacks entering the NFL to refuse a destination happened in 1983 with John Elway and 2004 with Eli Manning. That’s 21 years apart, and 21 years from the younger Manning’s choice to the Giants is 2025 when Shedeur Sanders will be selected. Could history repeat itself?

Cold-weather NFL cities include Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, New York (two teams), Green Bay, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore and Denver. Deion himself played baseball or football in several of these cities. But most, like Buffalo, Chicago and Kansas City will have a quarterback in place when Shedeur is set to enter the league. One team that might not have a gunslinger and does get cold right after college football season ends—is the Broncos.

Sanders shot up draft boards for the future rookie pool after his and the Buffs hot start after transferring from Jackson State. Shedeur had multiple record-breaking performances and his last quarter of play in the season saw him break Colorado’s school record for passing yards in a season which is now 3,230 yards. The record was held by Sefo Liufau’s at 3,200. Sanders also finished just shy of Liufau’s mark of most passing touchdowns in a Buffaloes season, set at 28, also in 2014. Sanders had 26 TD tosses in 2023 which is good for second in program history. Sanders ended the year some snaps short of the finish line as a shoulder injury kept him off the field for the Buffaloes finale. That pain was likely caused by a struggling offensive line which seems to be revamped headed into 2024.

At Colorado, Sanders, has played a spring game in the snow as well as some late-season games with temperatures in 30s or 40s.