The ‘Sanders’ printed on the back of your jersey can weigh heavy. NFL legend Deion Sanders certainly set the bar high. While his quarterback son, Shedeur, has flirted with getting close to or even breaching that bar, the same hasn’t quite transpired with his brother. Shilo Sanders perhaps got the shorter end of the stick when it came to the family’s athletic prowess. But the reason has now become a lot more conspicuous. It’s etched deeper than a simple lack of talent!

A couple of overarching attribute types that make or break careers. Tangibles and intangibles. Shoehorning every intricate skill in either category is futile, but the mainframe largely holds up. Deion Sanders was the player he was because he had both on lock. His athleticism was cusping on generational, so the tangibles probably did more of the heavy lifting. But you’ve still got to mesh it with a certain work ethic and drive. Gotta want it enough. You can permeate skill through coaching, but you cannot permeate drive. It would appear Shilo Sanders’ eminence on the gridiron, or lack thereof, is begrudgingly down to these intangibles not being on par with what’s required to ascend to the NFL level.

The Shrine Bowl provides seniors with the opportunity to showcase their mettle and talent one more time before the draft Combine. In fact, scouts and figureheads from NFL franchises are bound to be present. Actually, they already were at practice, which turns out didn’t go too well for Shilo Sanders. His brother won’t partake in proceedings, largely to avert the risk of injury. He doesn’t need to; his stock is etched in the top end of the draft. Shilo, though, could do with a great performance to boost his grade. But practice is just as requisite as the game in this scenario. Shilo may have rather unfortunately blown his shot. That’s if some insider info is to go by.

Over on IG, @nflrookiewatch relayed some bad news pertaining to Shilo Sanders to his 44k followers. This also goes for his X page with 163k on there. The post provided an account of how Shrine Bowl practice went for Shilo, and it doesn’t bode well. “Shilo Sanders has reportedly been “struggling” at the East West Shrine Bowl practices. Sanders has reportedly been getting ‘taken advantage of’ in 1v1’s and has been getting picked on in team periods,” it said. It’s noteworthy that Shilo has a particular target on his back, which he doesn’t necessarily deserve but has to live with because of his last name. Perhaps receivers took advantage and piled onto the safety’s misery.

The post proceeded to say, “Many in attendance reportedly believe Sanders has not raised his stock’ with his performance in these practices.” Despite this indictment, it concluded with, “Several NFL scouts projected Sanders to be a day three pick since entering the draft.”

This comes in the wake of Shilo’s mother, Pilar Sanders, showing love to him for this very practice. “GO @shilosanders” she wrote on IG herself. Now it’ll only be natural for a mother to bat an eye at her son’s shortcomings. But you’d tend to think the aforementioned post is not fallacious or based on hatred. A similar ordeal came to light during Deion Sanders’ “Coach Prime” docuseries. One particular instance showed Shilo facing the full wrath of his father as well as the defensive coordinator during Colorado practice.

This isn’t the first time Shilo Sanders has shown a lack of discipline in practice

S3E1 of the docuseries focused on safety Shilo Sanders during practice. Throughout the montage, it was evident DC Robert Livingston and Deion were unhappy with Shilo’s efforts. “Shilo, you’re killing yourself!” shouted Livingston repeatedly, suggesting his shortcomings were his own doing. Deion Sanders wasn’t standing at the ceremony either. He made a comment that was veiled in humor but stabbed the point across.

“Lower, Shilo. Lower, lower, lower!” shouted Deion repeatedly in his son’s direction. “You’re high as a kite. We’re gonna drug test you,” he said. Of course, this was said in jest, but the sentiment got across. Shilo was seemingly not defending low enough, which is key to remaining nifty and changing direction on a dime. Two key facets of being a player in the secondary. All that’s required is the effort of quite literally bending your knees and grafting. Again, Shilo Sanders let himself down with his effort rather than skill.

The most resounding comments came by way of assistant linebackers coach Andre Hart.“I think [Shilo] is one of the most talented guys I know,” remarked Andre Hart. “The biggest challenge for Shilo is to get him to understand a dream is only a dream unless you work for it…and to get him to be accountable.”

In spite of all this, there is a prevalent belief that Shilo Sanders will indeed be in the NFL. Whether he’s drafted or signs on as a free agent. This has obviously facilitated speculation around nepotism. The sensitive topic of nepotism became mainstream in the wake of Bronny James’ inclusion at the Lakers. Deion is a stand-up father who wants the best for his son. At the same time, he also projects as a coach who preaches a meritocracy. It’ll be interesting to see how things transpire in the next few months. But first, Shilo will have to thwart all of this bad rep in the Shrine Bowl.