Deion and Shedeur Sanders on the football field togetherMark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images

Get ready for the Deion Sanders NFL Sweepstakes, and it could be a package deal. ESPN insider Adam Schefter on Thursday morning floated the realistic scenario in which an NFL team with a high pick in the 2025 draft hires Deion Sanders in January, then drafts the Hall of Famer’s son as its future franchise quarterback. In that scenario, the Las Vegas Raiders make the most sense.

In a fascinating discussion on Thursday’s edition of Get Up involving Schefter, analysts Dan Orlovsky, Harry Douglas and host Mike Greenberg, the panel laid out why that possibility shouldn’t surprise anyone.

First, a short timeline of this week’s events:

  • Saturday: Shedeur Sanders leads No. 18 Colorado to a 41-27 win at Texas Tech, the latest step in a remarkable turnaround that has the Buffs on the doorstep of a berth in the Big 12 championship and potentially the College Football Playoff. The younger Sanders is now viewed by most as the top quarterback prospect in the 2025 draft.
  • Monday: Rex Ryan says he expects Deion Sanders to generate interest as an NFL head-coach candidate.
  • Tuesday: Michael Irvin asks the Colorado head coach on FS1’s Speak about potentially coaching the Cowboys, generating an ambiguous response — reminding many of what Nick Saban said before he left the Dolphins for Alabama. Sanders also tells Irvin he will privately control where his son lands, following in the footsteps of the college-to-NFL transitions taken by Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Eli Manning and John Elway.
  • Wednesday: ESPN college insider Paul Finebaum says Sanders belongs at the reins of the Dallas Cowboys.

“OK, so we have Paul Finebaum saying that Deion Sanders belongs with the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL,” said Schefter Thursday morning. “We’ve got Dan saying that Deion doesn’t trust his son to go to certain places. So, Paul is saying Deion is going to be in the NFL and you’re saying Deion wants to control his son. What better combination would there be than Deion getting to coach with his son in the same place? Because you can now take this and apply it to any team that has a top pick in the draft, that has a need for a quarterback and a coaching question. Any team. Start going through the list and start saying, ‘Could this team, would this team hire Deion Sanders to match with Shedeur Sanders as his head coach?’”

Greenberg said he thought Dallas wouldn’t make sense in that scenario, after making Dak Prescott the league’s highest paid player on Sept. 8. What does make sense, though, is the Raiders.

“They figure to have a high pick,” Greenberg said, noting the Raiders would draft fifth if the season ended today, “they need a quarterback, they got shut out last year; there were six quarterbacks that went ahead of their pick. They weren’t expecting that. They didn’t get the guy they wanted … I think that’s a place that a lot of people are going to be looking at.”

Enter new Raiders minority owner Tom Brady.

“I think the Tom Brady angle of it is very important,” said Douglas, “because Shedeur Sanders trained and worked out with Tom Brady. So, the relationship is there with Shedeur and Tom Brady, Deion Sanders and Tom Brady. Also, we’ve seen Shedeur at a basketball game recently, and the owner of the Las Vegas Raiders there, Mark Davis, talking about how much he enjoys Shedeur Sanders.”

Davis told Sanders at that Oct. 4 Las Vegas Aces game that the quarterback “might be home right now.”

Stay tuned, Raider Nation. For now, Antonio Pierce is the head coach and Gardner Minshew is the quarterback. Las Vegas (2-7) is on its way to Miami (3-6) for a Week 11 game at Hard Rock Stadium (1 p.m. ET, CBS).

For more information on the Raiders or the NFL Draft, visit the Las Vegas team page and the draft page at ProFootballPost.com.


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By Zak Gilbert

Since his freshman year at the University of Colorado, Zak Gilbert has worked 30 years in sports, including 18 NFL seasons. He's spent time with four NFL teams, serving as head of communications for both the Raiders and Browns. A veteran of nine Super Bowls, he most recently worked six seasons in the NFL's New York league office.

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