Colorado safety Shilo Sanders did not get selected in the NFL draft this week but revealed after the draft Saturday that he has agreed to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent.
Sanders, the middle son of Colorado coach Deion Sanders, held his phone and monitored the final picks of the seven-round draft Saturday hoping he’d get selected, as documented by his livestream on Twitch. But after not getting drafted, he had more freedom to decide which team to join.
Shilo’s younger brother Shedeur, a quarterback, was picked in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns the same day after previously being projected by many draft experts to be a first-round pick.
“Both of y’all, you’re resilient,” Deion Sanders told his sons Saturday.
“They tested us this draft,” Shilo said, as shown on Twitch.
“They tested the whole family,” Deion Sanders said.
“I’m thankful,” Deion Sanders later added. “Tampa’s a wonderful spot.”
Shilo Sanders led the Buffaloes in tackles in 2023 (70) and was their third-leading tackler last year (67) despite missing three games in 2024 with a broken forearm.
Even though he wasn’t projected to be a draft pick, Sanders is known as a hard hitter and ball hawk and is ripe for the NFL at age 25. He started his college career at South Carolina in 2019 before deciding to play for his father at Jackson State in 2021 and 2022 and then Colorado in 2023 and 2024.
Last year, he also rang up two pass breakups, two fumble recoveries, one sack, one forced fumble and a defensive touchdown.
“Turnovers win games,” Sanders wrote on X on April 22. “Somebody’s getting a dawg this week! Believe That.”
NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger also praised Sanders’ potential before the draft on social media, noting he brings “56 games of experience and a lot of splash plays from the safety position” and is a “good open field tackler.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com