Getty Deion Sanders with Shedeur Sanders.

With the college football season nearing its start, quarterback-needy NFL teams like the Las Vegas Raiders will get a better idea of which quarterbacks will be worth drafting. One player who many teams will watch closely is Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

He threw 27 touchdowns to just three interceptions last season despite a weak supporting cast. If he can continue to improve his play this season, there’s a good chance he’ll be a first-round pick. Colorado head coach and Shedeur Sanders’ father Deion Sanders was in Las Vegas for Big 12 Media Day and was asked about the possibility of the Raiders being the team to draft his son.

“That would be nice,” Sanders said of the idea of Shedeur Sanders potentially joining the Raiders, per a July 10 video posted on X by Vegas Sports Today.

The Sanders family is tightly knit so if Deion Sanders is happy with a potential fit, it’s likely that Shedeur Sanders would feel the same way. The elder Sanders noted that he wants the Raiders to do well and doesn’t want them to be in a position to draft his son but he would be happy to see him in Silver and Black.

Deion Sanders Praises Antonio Pierce

Similar to Sanders, Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce is a former player who has been elevated to a head coaching job. Pierce was promoted to interim head coach during the 2023 season after former head coach Josh McDaniels was fired.

He went 5-4 and did enough to earn the full-time head coaching job. Sanders knows Pierce well and has a lot of respect for the coach.

“Great man, great leader,” Sanders said of Pierce. “Earned the job, they didn’t give him nothing. I love what he brings to the table.”

Pierce likely plays a role in why Sanders wouldn’t mind seeing his son play for the Raiders. It remains to be seen how well he’ll do in his new role as the full-time head coach but he showed very promising signs last season. If he can continue to improve the Raiders, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a lot of players wanting to go to Las Vegas.

Shedeur Sanders Lands With Las Vegas Raiders in Recent Mock Draft

The Raiders are a difficult team to gauge heading into 2024. They finished 8-9 last season with a chaotic coaching and quarterback situation. While both situations aren’t guaranteed to be improved, it’s hard to see them being any worse than last year.

Despite that, many expect the Raiders to be bad enough in 2024 to have a top-10 pick. In a recent mock draft, Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski has Las Vegas picking at No. 8. The one positive is that the team would land Shedeur Sanders.

“First, not everyone is going to project him highly because of concerns over poor pocket management and decision-making,” Sobleski wrote in a July 10 column. “Second, he’s still a gifted quarterback prospect, and they tend to go much higher than projected based on position value alone.

“The Las Vegas Raiders can’t continue to wait regarding the game’s most important position.”

Sanders has franchise quarterback potential and landing him might be better than having another eight or nine-win season and getting out of position to draft a top quarterback.