BUFFS

Shedeur Sanders compares himself to Tom Brady and Michael Vick

Jun 10, 2024, 3:22 PM

Shedeur Sanders...

Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

Imagine a quarterback with the athleticism and speed of Michael Vick but the pocket presence and accuracy of Tom Brady—that’s the model Colorado Buffaloes gunslinger Shedeur Sanders is shooting for.

The top NFL Draft prospect and soon-to-be senior leader of his father Deion Sanders’ Buffs offense, Shedeur caught up with Complex Sports where he was asked if he was more like the Atlanta Falcons star or the New England Patriots Hall of Famer. Both game-changing and era-defining quarterbacks in their own right, Vick and Brady couldn’t have played the position more differently.

In five separate seasons, Vick led the NFL in rushing yards per attempt and was the first quarterback with over 1,000 yards rushing in a season back in 2006. While Brady led the NFL in passing touchdowns four times, averaging an insane 4,527 yards per 17 games over his 23-year NFL career. Simply said if you combine the running Brady lacked, with the longevity and accuracy Vick didn’t have, that would be the greatest quarterback of all-time by some measure—a Shohei Ohtani type so to speak.

“I’m a mixture,” Shedeur Sanders told Complex. “I’m able to stay in the pocket and want to deliver the ball each and every play like Brady but be able to extend plays and if it’s not there, take it like Vick.”

In 11 games at Colorado in his junior season, Sanders hit on 298 of his 430 passes for 3,230 yards with 27 touchdowns to just three interceptions. He added four touchdowns on the ground but was tagged for a loss of 77 yards rushing on 111 attempts because college stats count sacks as rushes and he was brought down more than any quarterback in the nation in 2023.

Compared to Brady and Vick’s junior seasons, Sanders’ stats stand out—granted football is a bit different now than it was then. At Michigan in 1998, Brady connected on 200 of his 323 passes for 2,427 yards and 14 touchdowns to 10 interceptions over his 12 games. He added two touchdowns on the ground, and his rushing attempts were 54 for a loss of 105 yards. And a year later in Vick’s third year of college at Virginia Tech, he completed 87 of his 161 passes for 1,234 yards with eight touchdowns and six picks. His ground game was amazing though, scoring eight times on 104 carries with 617 yards there in his 10 games.

“Whenever situations in the game occur, they like, ‘Hey you gotta be Mike Vick tonight.’ It’s a mixture of a lot of great quarterbacks. They all have different skill sets so that’s why I feel like I’m special with what I bring to to table,” Sanders said. “I want to stay in the pocket and throw it like Tom but sometimes those opportunities aren’t there and you gotta be able to make plays.”

Sanders and Brady have a relationship with Brady sending the youngster a text after the Buffs beat TCU last fall. Sanders has done some work for the Brady brand and the two have worked out together, Meanwhile, Sanders wears No. 2 just like Vick.

A quarterback that is the best of both worlds seems impossible but so too does playing on both sides of the ball in the NFL for a Super Bowl team while also playing in MLB for a World Series team—and that’s something Shedeur’s father Deion was able to pull. Nobody is saying the Buffs quarterback is Brady, Vick or even Deion, but Sanders is a great athlete and it’s always smart to aspire to be one of the best ever.

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