Getting Shilo Sanders on the roster is equivalent to investing in Bitcoin—either it is going to blow up in the next few years or it is going to tank your team. Let us explain: 2024 was the year for the Sanders brothers to prove themselves. Shedeur did it perfectly; Got game-changing plays in for the Buffs and is now sitting as a potential Top 3 pick in the draft. Shilo, on the other hand? Well, the reception is lukewarm at best. The major problem was his injury (forearm injury that required surgery), which not only sidelined him but pretty much tanked his draft stock.

Follow that up with a disappointing Arizona game where he was looking at the grass instead of following the receiver route and you get the perfect recipe for disaster. “I know I played horrible,” he confided after the game, and Deion Sanders was on the same page. Still, there was some hope that Shilo would redeem himself.

Fast forward to the Shrine Bowl, and it looks like any hope that was left is slowly slipping away. “Shilo Sanders’ draft stock reportedly “did not improve much” with his performances in the Shrine Bowl practices,” NFL Rookie Watch pointed out on IG. “Sander’s was reportedly “relying on talent more than effort” and was getting beat by WR’s and even TE’s on very simple routes. One NFL scouting source reportedly believes there’s “not much more” to Shilo’s game than a big hit right now.

“Sanders is currently a projected day three pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Colorado DB has some WORK to do before the draft rolls around.”

There’s a lot to digest here: First, this is a practice and it doesn’t defy the final product. Second, most of the clips that Rookie Watch has used are naturally of his bad plays—there is little to no highlight on his good plays. But does it mean Shilo should get a free pass? Not exactly. If you ask us, we’d say Shilo is almost like Jamal Adams. In 2020, Adams was infamous for his disastrous pass coverage—fast forward to Shilo and you would pretty much see the same.

However, Adams did improve over time. While coverage remained an issue, his ability to split apart plays still stands out. Shilo could do the same, but the problem is that he relies too much on big hits. Instead of wrapping around, he dives in for one big shot and often misses it, resulting in downs or worse, touchdowns. Now, he has had six years to fix this problem, but did he work on it? Not exactly.

All of these raise a lot of questions about where he will land on the draft. In fact, some predictions state he could go undrafted. Regardless, Day 3 is still optimistic. If the Shrine Bowl doesn’t show that much depth in his performance, then his stock could tank further. At the end of the day, it makes everyone realize that having the ‘Sanders’ name is not everything. Also, if you are someone who has followed the ‘Coach Prime’ docuseries, you’d know how disappointed Robert Livingstone and Deion Sanders were in Shilo’s performance.

Still, it looks like Deion Sanders won’t quit promoting his son…

Shilo: Deion Sanders hype train for the Safety!

Coach Prime took to his IG to share a clip of Shilo talking about the Shrine Bowl experience. “I’mma play hard, play tough, play smart. Just be an extension of the coaches on the field,” Shilo mentioned while talking about what makes him special for the April draft.

Well, good argument, but will it stand in the gridiron? “You know Shilo has a situation where he gotta work his butt off to go where he wants to go in whatever round that is gonna be,” Deion Sanders had pointed out while praising Shilo’s resilience but resilience doesn’t always get you a Top 10 pick.

Additionally, a day ago, the coach-father also posted an image from one of their practice sessions in the lead-up to the Shrine Bowl. It featured Shilo, safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig, wide receiver Jimmy Horn Jr., wide receiver LaJohntay Wester, and also wide receiver Will Sheppard. His message to these players was: “I Love everyone of these young men like they’re my own. @CUBuffsFootball.”

It will all come down to the Shrine Bowl and the combine and while the safety is getting ready for the fight alongside Buffs’ strength coach Andreu Swasey, will it all be good enough? Remember man, ‘Heads up. Eyes open,’ not ‘Heads down. Eyes closed.’ Tackling 101, Shilo.