Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Athlon Sports
Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders Surpassed by Fellow QB as Favorite to Be No. 1 Pick in 2025 NFL Draft
By Dan Lyons,
12 days ago
Shedeur Sanders is one of the biggest names in college football, but it is far too early to have a great idea of what his status as a 2025 NFL Draft prospect will be. With the 2024 draft in the rearview mirror, sportsbooks already have installed some eye-opening odds for Sanders to be the No. 1 pick next year.
Sanders’ odds to be the No. 1 pick stood at +100 at DraftKings Sportsbook on April 29 . Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Georgia’s Carson Beck trailed him at +300. Sanders is unquestionably a talented quarterback, but Colorado went just 4-8 with him under center a year ago. Plus, the quality of Sanders’ offensive line is uncertain, and the Buffaloes join a new conference in a deep Big 12 this season.
Just days after DraftKings made Sanders the favorite to go No. 1, his odds began to slide. He was bumped down to +300 by May 2.
DraftKings has not yet updated those odds, but FanDuel, another prominent online sportsbook, just put out its new numbers, and things have fluctuated a lot in just a few days.
FanDuel has Georgia’s Beck ranked as the solid favorite, holding at +300, followed by Sanders at +450. Ewers, meanwhile, is all the way down at +1400.
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders has seen his odds to become the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL draft slide after being inserted as the favorite in late April.
Ron Chenoy&solUSA TODAY Sports
Those are pretty sizable discrepancies, especially in May without any on-field results or major injuries to factor in. Sanders did find himself in the news , however, after he and his father, Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders, were involved in an ugly online conversation with former Colorado players on social media last week. It is unclear whether that has an impact on the odds, though given how thoroughly NFL teams evaluate potential draft picks, it may resurface during the draft process next year.
Sanders is coming off an impressive first season at Colorado, in which he completed 69.3% of his throws for 3,230 yards with 27 touchdown passes and just three interceptions, despite playing behind a porous offensive line that allowed 56 sacks.
Even if Colorado fails to make a huge leap forward in 2024, it isn’t impossible for Sanders to go No. 1 in 2025. Steve Bartkowski went 8-13-1 as the starter at Cal, and went No. 1 to the Atlanta Falcons in 1975, becoming a two-time Pro Bowler. John Elway, an NFL legend for the Denver Broncos, was just 15-18 at Stanford before going No. 1 in 1983. The ’99 No. 1 pick, Tim Couch, did not pan out for the Browns after going 12-30 at Kentucky. More recently, Jared Goff went No. 1 in 2016 after compiling a 14-23 record at Cal, and he’s turned into a reliable Pro Bowl-level player.
Even so, history says quarterbacks who win big are far more likely to go in the top spot, and a QB may not go No. 1 at all, depending on which team finds itself selecting first next year.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Local Colorado State
Most Popular
Comments / 0