The NFL Draft is usually a pretty simple process: A team picks a player and then that player signs a contract with the team. However, things may not be so simple next year, and that's because it sounds like Deion Sanders is planning on turning the draft upside down.
During a recent appearance on the ""Million Dollaz Worth of Game" podcast, Sanders said his son, Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders, as well as Buffaloes' two-way star Travis Hunter, will refuse to play for certain teams and that they might even pull an Eli Manning.
"I know where I want them to go," Deion said on the podcast, via ESPN. "So, it's certain cities that ain't going to happen. It's going to be an Eli."
Of course, when Deion said his players might pull an "Eli," he's referring to Manning's infamous antics back in 2004. Just days before the draft that year, Manning's agent (Tom Condon) told the Chargers that Eli would sit out the entire 2004 season if the team drafted him with the first overall pick. The Chargers ended up ignoring the threat and taking Eli with the top pick anyway. However, Manning's threats did ultimately work because he ended up getting traded to the New York Giants less than an hour later.
Manning saw the comments from Deion and seemed to enjoy the shoutout.
Deion wants his both of his players to play in a city that fits them, and he mentioned the 49ers, Cowboys, Commanders and Ravens as possible landing spots. In something that may or may not be a coincidence, Sanders played for all four of those teams during his Hall of Fame NFL career.
The current Colorado head coach wants to see his kids end up in the right city, because he thinks landing in the right city was something that helped him. The former Florida State star was selected by the Atlanta Falcons with the fifth overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft.
"Atlanta fit, and I want that for my kids. All of them. I want the right fit," Sanders said. "[Atlanta] was the first time I saw Black people in positions of authority. It blew my mind. It was real in Atlanta. I had never seen anything like that in my life."
Sanders has been very vocal about where he wants to see his kids play in the NFL. Besides landing in a city that fits, Deion also wants to make sure that Shedeur doesn't end up in a cold-weather city.
"Like, I don't want my kid going nowhere cold next year," Sanders said recently on SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio. "He grew up in Texas. He played in Jackson, played in Colorado. Season's over before it gets cold in Colorado. I'm just thinking way ahead. I don't want that for him."
Based on his comments, Sanders could definitely throw a wrench in the NFL Draft next year. If a team is interested in Shedeur at quarterback and Shedeur doesn't want to play for that team, that would create a game of chicken: Will the team still draft him even if he makes it clear that he won't play for them?
The strategy worked for Manning and John Elway, but you have to have a lot of leverage to go through with it. If Shedeur ends up being the top QB in the class of 2025, he may be able to pull it off. But if he's not, it becomes much more difficult. As for Hunter, there's never really been a positional player in the draft who's refused to play for a team, so he'll be breaking new ground if he makes it known that he won't play for certain teams.
As things stand today, both
