Shedeur Sanders is wildly out of touch in evaluating his NFL future

If Shedeur Sanders sees himself as some combination of Tom Brady and Michael Vick at the quarterback position, then I as a sports writer am some combination of Rick Riley, Andy Staples and Lewis Grizzard. We can all dream big, but sometimes you need to keep those big dreams to yourself because no one wants to hear them. Like your fantasy football team, that is something for just you.

During an interview with Complex Sports, Sanders talked about who he patterns his game after as the second-year starting quarterback for the Colorado Buffaloes. Not to be humbled, he likened himself to the greatest quarterback of all time in Tom Brady, as well as to the most exciting quarterback to ever play the game of football in the one-of-a-kind Michael Vick. What are we doing?

Here is what the Buffaloes starting quarterback had to say the year after his team went only 4-8...

"I'm a mixture. 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."

Like his father Deion, Sanders will probably be a first-round pick. The 2025 NFL Draft could have as many as five first-round quarterbacks. Sanders is probably QB3 on my board right now, but he has a lot to prove to me ahead of his final season in Boulder. He could be a top-10 pick, but I would be taking Carson Beck out of Georgia and Quinn Ewers out of Texas if I was an NFL general manager.

It is comments like these that have made me go from rooting for Colorado to rooting against them...

Shedeur Sanders sees himself as a much better QB than he actually is

Look. I don't take much seriously in my professional writing career, but I do try to get quarterback comps right. To me, Sanders is pretty similar to what Cam Ward was at Washington and Incarnate Word before that, now at Miami. From a professional comp, I think Sanders can be a high-end Baker Mayfield or a lower-end Russell Wilson. Don't give me a Drew Brees comp ever. Those are worthless!

What I'm getting at is we cannot say every so-called blue-chipper coming out is going to be the hottest thing since sliced bread. He is not going to be the next Peyton Manning, Joe Burrow or Patrick Mahomes. Only in very rare instances does that feel right. We unfairly compared Trevor Lawrence to Manning, but that didn't stop us from saying Caleb Williams will be the next Mahomes in the sport.

What I want more than anything is for Sanders to improve his game enough to the point where he becomes a first-round lock. If more and more winning comes with that in Boulder, then that would be wonderful. If CU can go something like 8-4 and Sanders is one of the most polished passers in the Power Four, then I could see somebody convincing themselves he could be the next Brady or Vick.

Until then, I want to see noticeable traits from Sanders suggesting he is a franchise quarterback.