Shilo Sanders doesn’t have it easy playing in the same area of the field as his father, Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders. Because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ undrafted free agent safety shares the same genes and surname as his father, there will always be comparisons. He’s not trying to live up to them.
Shilo Sanders Takes Stance on Fulfilling Comparisons to His Father
There is little about the younger Sanders’ road to the professional gridiron that is reminiscent of his father’s path.
Now the 57-year-old head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, Deion Sanders, was once a flashy coverman who backed up bold claims on the field. He arrived in the NFL as a top-5 pick in the 1989 NFL Draft, walking out of a pre-draft meeting with the New York Giants before that because he knew he’d already be taken by the time they made their choice.
The younger Sanders can’t carry himself with the same attitude. He played for three different college programs, two under his father’s direction. He isn’t the can’t-miss prospect Coach Prime once was.
“I can’t be my dad,” Sanders told The Athletic on Friday. “Everyone’s different. Everything is different. It’s not 1995 anymore. It’s 2025. So even if I did every little thing like my dad, I still wouldn’t even be him.”
Shilo Sanders totaled 67 tackles at Colorado a season ago. He had one interception over two seasons in Boulder, playing in the same secondary as the much more heralded Travis Hunter. Sanders is putting his head down and working like any other undrafted player. He recognizes what he’ll have to do to make an early impact on the Buccaneers and embraces his role.
“I want to be All-Pro special teams,” Sanders said when asked about his goals. “Show the coaches I could play, and that I play hard and be physical and earn their trust, make it on the field (defensively) one day.”
KEEP READING: Buccaneers’ First Depth Chart Proves Shilo Sanders Faces an ‘Uphill Climb’ to Make 53-Man Roster
It’s a maturity that he’s shown since not hearing his name called in the 2025 NFL Draft.
“Well, my take on being disappointed in ‘lows’ — it’s not really ‘low’ because you can’t change the path and you can’t really do anything about something that already happened,” Sanders said during Tampa Bay’s rookie minicamp in May. “So I just trust God, and I always end up doing something great, so I just know it’s going to happen, and whatever’s happening currently is to learn or to grow from.”
