Yanish Weekly: Flaw in how Shedeur Sanders Reads Coverages?

Here in Colorado, where I live, we have not been excited about football for a while. The Broncos have not been relevant for 10 years. It’s been even longer for Colorado (CU) and Colorado State (CSU). Enter Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders into the scene.

Now something is building at CU and the team is the hottest thing in all of college football.

The hype is unreal.

Before the 92nd meeting of the Rocky Mountain Showdown, things were getting heated. CSU Head Coach Jay Norvell and CU’s Head Coach Deion Sanders (Coach Prime) were spitting gasoline on the flames.

Turning our attention toward that game

Sanders didn’t disappoint in this one.

It was a thriller coming down to double overtime and CU won 43-35.

CSU gave CU everything they could handle with a ball-controlled approach with an opportunistic defense getting after Sanders.

Will that be a blueprint for future opponents of CU?

Time will tell.

Game details

Turnovers ruled the first quarter, as the first one came just minutes into the game as Sanders tossed his first interception of the season.

Scoring kicked off when CU safety Shilo Sanders intercepted a pass taking it back 80 yards for the pick-six.

Not to be left out, CSU defensive back (DB) Ron Hardge III scooped up a CU Travis Hunter fumble and ran it back for the go-ahead touchdown. Then barely 10 minutes into the game, Hunter was injured by a late hit from DB Henry Blackburn. Hunter didn’t return to the game.

At the end of the third quarter, CSU had the lead, 21-14. CSU had held CU to one offensive touchdown.

Just as it started to look like CSU had the win, things turned in the favor of CU. With 2:06 left in regulation, Sanders engineered a 98-yard drive with WR Jimmy Horn Jr. hauling in the game-tying score, forcing overtime and eventually Sanders got the W.

Sanders from a scouting perspective

As a quarterback (QB), tight-end (TE), linebacker (LB), mutant combo in college, I have seen some things on the field.

The film is the most efficient way to evaluate prospects.

Sometimes you can tell right off who they are. Sometimes it takes longer. However, when it clicks, it clicks.

How Sanders sees the field is different.

He learned how to read defenses from a DB’s viewpoint, courtesy of his dad, who was a Hall of Fame cornerback. The thing is, seeing defenses from one side of the ball to the other is a whole other world.

To explain, take a slide with an offensive play on it and place it on a projector. Then lay a defensive play over the top of it. When he takes the snap, he isn’t reading defenses like a lot of QBs, no, he has to begin peeling back the layers.

Sanders is not snapping his head around going through his progressions consistently, because he’s doing it mostly in his head – – and he’s overthinking it.

With the extra steps he has to go through in his progressions and really seeing the field backward, he is adding time to making throwing decisions, and that is a significant problem. Maybe it doesn’t show up against unranked CSU, but this surely will show up in the NFL where defenses are faster and more complex.

The extra time allows the pass rush to bear down on him. Despite the fact he has some of the best ball placement I’ve ever seen, that still will not stop a 250-pound linebacker moving at 4.4 (40-yard-dash-time) speed toward him.

When he does not read the defensive scheme correctly, he panics and freezes up. You can see it on tape.

Slower reads and staring down receivers will not equate to success in the NFL.

The tell-tale sign when trouble starts is his feet start dancing around and the 15 sacks in the first three games.

Game film evidence

Colorado vs. Colorado State (2023)

William Yanish III is a lifelong football fan. He’s from the little town of Crawford, Colorado. Along the way, he’s lived in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and Brookings, Oregon. Quarterback Joe Montana was his idol growing up. A little bit of CTE from life’s adventures killed his dreams as a football player. Now, he is an aspiring writer and Draft Analyst at FirstRoundMock.com. He’s a fanatic with a dream, which is coming true.