What Deion Sanders told Buccaneers about signing Shilo

While the five-round tumble of Shedeur Sanders captivated ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. throughout the 2025 NFL Draft, Shilo stayed in the background. He likely knew his chance would come through signing as an undrafted free agent.

The 6-foot, 196-pounder got a rating of 5.67 from nfl.com. That’s tabbed as “candidate for bottom of roster or practice squad.”

“Sanders is a hard-hitting safety who plays with good aggression but lacks consistency and playmaking traits,” Lance Zierlein wrote. “He will be a 25-year-old rookie, and he has missed time due to injuries in each of the last three seasons. He lacks ideal range and instincts to play high safety, but he has enough vision and aggression to compete as a down safety. Ultimately, he will need to eliminate his inconsistencies with pursuit angles and shine on special teams to have a chance of sticking with an NFL squad.”

Over Shilo Sanders’ six college seasons, he totaled 229 tackles, six interceptions, 13 pass breakups, and seven forced fumbles. In 2024, Sanders started 10 games for Colorado and totaled 67 tackles.

Brother Shedeur had to wait until pick No. 144 to go to the Cleveland Browns in Round 5. Shedeur said he took it in stride, according to nfl.com.

“Nothing really affected me the last couple of days,” Sanders said, per the team transcript. “I’m favored, I’m blessed. Besides that, it’s not really anything that changed, the love of the game, is still the love of the game. When you get on the field, there wasn’t too much negativity being said. I know I gotta clean up some things in my game for me to be at my best, but that’s what I take each offseason one at a time and fix it.”