Now that former Colorado Buffaloes safety Shilo Sanders has signed as a UDFA with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, team officials are coming out and talking about why they are taking a chance on the 25-year-old heavy hitter.
It turns out that the Bucs’ general manager, Jason Licht, and head coach, Todd Bowles, had been keeping an eye on Sanders for a long time. So, when the opportunity arose, they didn’t hesitate to take a flier on him.
How Did the Bucs Decide To Sign Shilo Sanders?
Licht went on “Pat & Aaron” on WDAE radio to talk about Sanders, son of NFL legend Deion Sanders.
“We’ve talked about [Shilo Sanders] quite a bit in the process,” Licht said.
According to Licht, Sanders’ agent called the Bucs on Saturday, April 26, to ask if they’d sign Sanders. Licht said that when the call came. He happened to be standing alongside Bowles, and it was an easy decision. Sanders entered the draft without an agent, but shortly after the draft was over, he signed with Drew Rosenhaus.
Sanders quipped, “Dad was our agent, but that hasn’t been working out too good. So, today I had to sign with an agent.”
Next thing Licht knew, Deion reached out to Bowles. “Coach Prime called him Saturday night and thanked him for giving [Shilo] a fair shot,” said Licht.
For his part, Deion went on his family’s Twitch stream singing the move’s praises. “I’m thankful. Tampa’s a wonderful spot,” Deion said. “Coach Bowles is a defensive-minded guy. He’s brilliant.”
As for Shilo, he says, “I just wanna ball.”
Tampa Bay is taking a low-risk bet on a high-reward player. Sanders has six years of college experience and possesses a tremendous work ethic. He finished his college career with 52 games played, 218 tackles, six interceptions, seven forced fumbles, one sack, and 17 passes defended.
He boasts a high football IQ and can play as both a deep free safety and closer to the line as an in-the-box run support safety. While he’s a great finisher in zone coverage, he still has work to do when it comes to man-to-man coverage. He needs to work on being a better technical tackler instead of always going for the big hit, but none of the things he has to work on are the result of laziness and can be worked on.
His best path to making the 53-man roster is probably on special teams. If he does that, he can try to work his way into the defensive rotation as a safety.