Deion Sanders could ruin Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter's NFL careers before they begin

You can consider us Team Coach Prime around these parts, as Colorado's impressive start to the 2023-24 college football season was a sight to behold. Deion Sanders is the recruiter Boulder has long desired, and he's surrounded himself with some of the best position coaches in the sport to fill any gaps.

Sanders is building up Colorado from scratch thanks in part to untimely departures and the mess he agreed to take over last offseason. In doing so, Sanders secured the transfers of his son Shedeur Sanders, as well as two-way star Travis Hunter. Both players could go pro as early as next season.

Deion clearly knows his players better than I do, and feels free to speak on their behalf. In doing so, however, he has started one familiar narrative by stating Shedeur and Hunter should 'pull an Eli Manning', and try to control their own NFL Draft destiny. While that worked out just fine for Manning, he was in a unique position as the overwhelming No. 1 prospect in 2004. For Shedeur and Hunter to provide such a list of teams in 2025, it could raise some red flags. Coach Prime hasn't backed down, however.

Sanders claimed that both his son and Hunter will be selected within the first four picks, and he'd prefer they play in Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington and Baltimore. You'll notice that Deion played for several of those teams during his Hall-of-Fame NFL career.

Is Deion Sanders hurting Sheduer Sanders and Travis Hunter?

Perhaps it'll all line up and both players can be taken by one of these teams, but on the surface only Atlanta and Washington have an argument to be in 2025's top-10 picks, as both franchises are in a rebuilding state.

Sanders isn't doing much harm by saying which teams he'd prefer his best players are drafted to. However, he is creating some chaos if he's serious about "pulling an Eli" as he's stated multiple times leading up to April's showcase. We should also keep in mind that he's a year ahead of time, and plenty can happen between now and then.

Much of what makes Deion Sanders...Coach Prime...is his willingness to speak out to benefit his players. He is the ultimate players coach, and will question any pundit who has a bad thing to say about Colorado or the Buffaloes. It's a great selling point for the university.

However, if Sanders is serious about convincing his players to avoid possible NFL Draft destinations, he is directly impacting their future financial flexibility.