Well, it was just about 3 weeks ago that this guy’s dad was sitting in that chair at this desk, not not in Indie, but in New Orleans.
Shador Sanders, with us now in the flesh.
Shador, welcome, how you doing great, doing great, doing great, great, to see you, great, to spend a little time.
How, uh, how you feeling a couple months removed from entering the Nfl and finding out what your first team’s going to be.
I would say it’s a day Byday Process.
Um, my most important thing right now is just getting better, every day stronger, uh, getting in more shape.
So that’s the only thing I’m focused on right now, and just, I’m just ready to get to a team.
Really take me to Childhood, right?
Yeah, Right.
When I heard that you were coming up the ranks, I was like man.
Well, he must be fast.
I can’t wait to see him.
No, I got my speed from my mom.
Your dad said the same thing.
He said the those Mama’s jeans right there.
That’s said it is, but but off of that.
When did you realize you were like a gifted thrower that can like: Oh damn, I got a little more pep on the ball than the the normal kid in the neighborhood.
Yeah, So, so so from the beginning.
My the reason why I was a quarterback?
Because I was a.
I was a great leader and I could relate to different people by just being in overall different situations.
So be getting the best of both worlds in life.
So my dad grew, had us grow up, you know, privileged a little bit all up until one point.
Then he moved us to the inner city.
So then that’s what got us, that dog mentality.
That’s what got us.
Like, you know it’s do or die.
You got to make it out damn.
So that’s.
That’s how.
So he threw us right into the fire, you know.
So then, from then on, then, that’s how we able to Rel like, be able to talk to different people, be able to um, relate to all these different type of people, and then, from then on, it was just always a leader aspect was there.
Like, did you have catches in the backyard, though with Dad cuz?
Like Dad can throw it pretty good for a corner.
I’ve seen him throw it a little bit, but like, not anymore, not anymore back of the day, that that won’t catch my footballs anymore.
He, he doesn’t want any part of that n he, he gets too nervous sometimes, or he puts on Gloves-
And he has baseball gloves at home right now.
But but like you in the backyard, and then he, he see you throw
And then he start to.
Did he start to say like hey, did he ever coach you up on a little bit like mechanics growing up?
No, the thing is-
And that’s why I’m able to relate to a lot of the Youth and Young Quarterbacks- is because I, I didn’t grow up being able to throw the football as well as I can now.
Yeah, It took years of years of work, work, work, work, work.
So that’s all I know is the work to get the result I want to get right, having your dad as your head coach for your entire career in college.
Offensive coordinator in high school.
Was he, was he harder on you than the other kids on the team?
Yeah, of course, because I I represent him.
So he knows, going into any situation, that the other team feels like they’re playing against him, and the only way how they beat him is by beating me.
You know.
So he, he, he understood the standards, the expectations, and I represented him as an individual and him as a person.
So I’m a product of what he has created, so that’s why he always hold me to the utmost standard.
So playing for any other coach or everything else it’ll be, they’ll get nothing but the best version of me, because I’m not just playing for myself, I’m playing for the name on my back.
I’m, I’m.
I’m incredibly impressed by your ability to handle the spotlight.
I mean I know your brother Dion Jr’s over here.
I mean everybody knows who you guys are.
Yeah, You’ve been like.
How do you kind of deal with the pressure of being Prime Time son and this big, awesome quarterback with awesome diamonds around his neck and all that?
No, it was cameras on since I came out.
The womb, you know.
So cameras don’t really fase me.
Anything doesn’t really fase me.
That’s why I play my game.
How I play.
You got to.
If you one way, you got to be the same way all the way across the board.
So if I, if internal, you got the de tackle getting breaking through that line of scrimmage, I ain’t going to Flinch.
I ain’t you don’t Flinch.
I love that about you, man.
So that’s why everything, everything in life, relates to each other.
So it’s like: you never feel pressed, you never feel anything.
One way to get away from cameras is to go fish, and Dad told us how much he loves to fish.
Travis told us yesterday he he’s a better fisherman than your dad.
Do you?
Do you fish and are you better than I’m done?
I’m done with fishing.
You know, we grew up, thankfully to that.
We grew up Onund some Acres.
So I fish my lights out.
I love it, love.
I fish my lights out when I was a kid, so I did.
I had a full youth.
So I’m done fishing.
I’m done doing that.
You know, I just sit at home too.
You’re, you’re old school to me in the way you play.
Come on now.
Yeah, You are like
I mean you stand in the pocket.
You want to make throws.
You don’t give a damn if you’re about to get hit.
Who do you growing up?
Who do you model your game after?
Who did you watch Tom Brady?
Yeah,
Yeah,
Yeah.
I’m able to see what he is done and, and mentally, uh, how he was able to beat people with the mind.
So it’s physically.
That’s why he was able to play to the year.
He was able to play right.
So that’s why I inherit those type of abilities and I see what he doing.
Okay, I add this, this, this, to the game, and that’s why I’m not at my best product, yet I’m.
I’m nowhere near where I need to be and where I want to be, and where I desire to be, because it’s certain things going into the offseason you have to work on.
You have to grow at, you have to be able to indulge in one one step at a time, other than your dad, who’s been advising you, getting you ready for what’s to come.
When you get to the Nfl, I would say just just to be able to just Debrief and and, and and decompressing everything.
It was Mike Vic H. he’s somebody I talk to, cuz.
He knows the, the Ups, the downs and everything about this game.
So I’m able to have a conversation with him and he’s able to give me all the insight and the knowledge that he has, that where he did good, where he went wrong, on how he should have did this, this, this.
So that’s why I’m thankful to have a mentor like him also.
Let me see he grip that ball.
How you liking the Nfl ball.
So far, good, this was not.
That’s not a good one here.
This isn’t a good one, but thankful for my let me see.
So how you grip it, I like to see.
So there we go.
We got one
And he’s a little under barely touching one and under four.
Okay, I’ve been.
I always like to ask guys how they grip it, how they like the new Nfl football.
He was giving the equipment staff a shout out for getting his footballs ready time with you.
I got to get it in.
I’ll see you.
Equipment staff for mding the football is the right way and the balls I got in the room is amazing.
Yeah, They’re really good, all right.
So you’re?
You’re obviously talked about being a top pick in the draft and you’re being dissected.
What’s one thing like in your game you look at to go?
I want to be better right, like footwork drops.
Yeah, That’s consistently.
Sometimes, I know I drift in the pocket.
Sometimes, um, I’m a product of kind of what I had to adjust to.
I know you’re, you’re, your pass protection sucked.
I’ll say it for you.
I mean I ain’t going to lie.
I like my old linen, though I still love my old Lin for whatever.
But you know, sometimes we wasn’t all on the same page.
So right, it’s something that you can’t coach like.
Yeah, I would.
Of course I want to take three in the hits, but if that’s not the situation, you given in, you got to make something happen.
So, going into these franchises, if you have a top pick, then obviously it’s okay.
It’s some problems or some dysfunction going on in, uh, the facility or the team or anything like that, of course.
So you got to have somebody that’s able to adjust, that’s able to do it on the run, for somebody to be able to.
Um, that has shown and has proved that they able to change two different franchises, two different universities.
So that’s why I know I’m the the best quarterback out there, because I’ve done it
And I proved it.
That’s a great way to look at it, because usually what happens is bad teams stay bad.
Well, bad teams.
Don’t have someone who comes along who’s able to turn a bad team into good team.
And you’ve, you’ve got the track record at Jackson State and at Colorado and you fully believe wherever you go, the teams at the top didn’t get there by being good.
You’re going to be a guy to turn them around.
And that’s the kind of confidence you need.
Mhm.
Well, it’s the facts that you need.
Also that’s yeah.
So it’s not about confidence.
You confidence when you know when it’s facts behind it, when when I know I’ve done it not once.
That’s where confidence comes from otherwise.
Otherwise it’s just, you know, a stupid dream.
You can, you’ve got the confidence cuz you have proven it and you will prove it again.
What do you say to all that crap right about like?
You can’t play unless your dad’s coaching you?
I like it.
I indulge in all that because it’s like I’m thankful for.
My dad is who he is.
So it’s like you should be mad at your dad and do what he said he was going to do.
Was he extra hard on you?
Of course that was.
That was extremely hard.
He, he was.
He was we five years old, running a snake, five yards every line, the whole football field.
So it’s like.
He knows the expectation and he knew and he seen all this stuff play out before it happened.
So that’s why now we’re on the stage.
That’s why every thing that he has done up to this point prepared us for this moment.
And Shador, last question: your dad told us he would only come to the Nfl to coach if it would be coaching you.
Do you hear that and say I’m good, I’m good, or do you want, or do you want that to to?
I think I think it’s God’s plan.
I think whatever happens if things fall in the right way, it fall in the right way.
So it’s not really a man-made decision.
Uh, based off of that, because you got to let God, you got to let him lead you throughout everything, so his decisions and everything that happens, it falls in place the right way, even making a decision to go to Jackson State and I was going to another University.
And that’s why I feel like people forget, like you.
You know I had every offer in the world, right.
Yeah, I know, people think you had nothing
And you just I didn’t have to go.
You know, I chose to right.
So then for a purpose.
Cuz I don’t just live for myself, it’s for a purpose and for a bigger vision and dream.
So that’s why each step part of my life was stepping stones and got me to this point where I am now.
I could have went another Direction and got to this point.
I am now, but at the same time, it means more now and I was able to bump my head and have different life experiences to get to get me to this point, to be able to change these different programs up until this point.
So that’s why I know I’m ready
And I’m prepared, and I know I’m the best quarterback available.
Well, Titans fans, Browns fans, Giants fans are all happy to here
And they’re all going to be hoping their team ends up getting shador Sanders for 2025 and Beyond shador.
Thanks so much congratulations.
We’ll have plenty more from the combine.
Hi, it’s Mike Florio.
Thanks for watching Pft on Youtube.
Hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk.