Caleb Williams may be just fine going to the Chicago Bears as the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. But Colorado head coach Deion Sanders said he’ll take a much more aggressive approach to the 2025 NFL Draft not only with his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, but also Buffaloes two-way star Travis Hunter.
“I know where I want them to go. … There’s certain cities where that ain’t gonna happen,” Deion Sanders said on a recent podcast appearance. “It’s going to be an ‘Eli.’”
Sanders was referring to when Eli Manning, the top quarterback prospect in the 2004 NFL Draft, famously refused to play for the San Diego Chargers, who held the No. 1 overall pick. The Chargers relented on draft day and traded Manning to the New York Giants in exchange for fellow top pick Philip Rivers and additional picks.
Manning’s stunt is notable not only because he and Rivers both went on to have successful careers with their respective teams (including Manning winning two Super Bowls with the Giants), but also because it’s one of just a handful of times a presumptive top overall NFL Draft pick has exerted that sort of leverage — something Williams’ camp once hinted they would try to do this year.
Williams’ father hinted early last season that the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner could “come back to school” for his senior year of college football if he didn’t land in a “good situation” in the NFL. However, Williams himself recently told FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd that he would be “excited” to go to Chicago if they select him first overall in next April’s draft, as they are widely expected to do. Williams’ former USC teammate Brenden Rice also told FOX Sports’ Keyshawn Johnson on Johnson’s podcast, “All Facts No Brakes,” that he doesn’t see the quarterback “pulling one of those Eli Mannings.”
But Sanders said recently he thought it was in Williams’ best interest to try to get out of Chicago and does not want Shedeur to play for a cold-weather NFL team whose season, unlike the college season even in frigid Boulder, Colorado, means he is playing home games well into December and January.
That might be bad news for teams in the northern U.S. with top picks next year if Shedeur does indeed solidify his standing as a top quarterback prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft and Hunter continues excelling at both cornerback and wide receiver. But Eli Manning, for his part, seems just fine with the Sanders family attempting to take a page out of the Manning playbook.
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