QB Shedeur Sanders (8.4.25)
So, have you had arm soreness before like that where you’ve had to take a day off?
“Yeah, in college. In college, it was often. It was just adjusting to starting and stopping. Honestly, that’s all it truly is, you know, sometimes you’re going hot, then you’ll wait for a second, then you’ll get cold, then get back hot, then get cold. And, you know, my arm and body wasn’t used to that, you know, so it’s just an adjustment, like within the body, you know, within my arm.”
So, you think you’ll be back 100% today?
“Yeah.”
It’s pretty mature of you. Not. I guess maybe mature isn’t the right word, but for you to self-report what I know it’s hard for you guys to take yourselves out of even one rep when you’re in the middle of a competition. So, did you have to debate that at all, or did you just know?
“No, of course there’s definitely something, you know, in your mind. And I always think about my, I always hear my dad’s voice in my mind, you know, all the time, because it’s always “bone of blood,” you know his motto and, you know his slang with everything. So of course, I was definitely hearing his voice in the back of my head. But at the end of the day, I want to be productive. I want to give you guys the best work and I want to be at my best at all times, you know?”
Did you need an MRI?
“MRI for what? I hope I ain’t break anything.”
Shedeur, have you been told how you’ll be used Friday in the Carolina game?
“No, I haven’t been told that yet.”
So, what are you hoping to get from that game?
“Reps, I think that’s pretty much it—just reps.”
How valuable do you think the reps you are going to get in this first joint practice are going to be?
“I think every rep I get in general is valuable. You know, we definitely taking things up a notch, I would say, with everything. So, every rep, you know, anytime I step on the field, I take it like it could be my last. Because you don’t know, it’s players that we was just practicing with last week, that’s not here no more. So, like I said, it’s more about a bond. It’s more about going all out. It’s more about, you know, how you’ll be remembered.”
Where do you feel like your growth has been the most? Is it on the field? Is it in the meeting room? Is there a specific place where you say, “Man I really needed help there”?
“I would say mentally. I would definitely say mentally, even regardless if people, if media, you know, have good ways or bad ways to come about me, you know, I’m more mature in not making those same mistakes I made, you know, in college or whatever I did. So, I treat everybody with respect and with care, and whenever everybody gets over, their own hate towards me for their own weird reasons, then, you know, everything will be back good. So that’s it, that’s where I grew the most, I’d say, mentally.”
I know you still haven’t taken any reps with the one offense, but you took some against the one defense. Did you find that particularly valuable going against guys like Denzel (Ward) and whoever else is out there with the ones?
“Yeah, I would say pretty much. I view it as the defense does a great job of mixing players in. So backers, you got rookies out there sometimes, DBs, you got different guys out there. So, it’s not mentally I go out there, I’m like, “Oh, you know, these the ones. I’m gonna get nervous.” Like it don’t got anything to do with that. And truthfully, I don’t care what O-line I go out there with. It could be ones, twos, threes, whatever the situation is. And I know Friday when the game [starts], if I’m with twos, if I’m with threes, it don’t matter to me. I’m just ready to get down and get to, you know, doing what I could do.”
Shedeur, what’s the past couple months been like as your dad came out with the announcement of bladder cancer last week in the stream? Just what’s that been like for you and the family.
“In the last couple months? Well, I’ll say it’s definitely stay focused mentally. Dad, he’s one person that he’ll handle his, we handle what we got to do. So, it was something that, you know, we would really ain’t even have no formal conversation about because it was like, y’all need to focus on what y’all can focus on. Y’all can’t sit here and feel sorry for me and then that’s affecting y’all doing that. So, we all knew cause our family be talking in group chats and everything. But at the end of the day, y’all able to see and y’all able to understand, you know everything on the field, off the field, you know, what I go through. So then, you know, you gotta be some type of human at some point in the way how I’m doing everything and how I’m handling everything that’s thrown at me. You know, you got no choice but to applaud to that.”
Shedeur, here you are heading into block three of this training camp and you’re still right in the thick of this four-way quarterback competition. What does that say about how hard you work, and what you’ve been doing behind the scenes that we don’t even see to be still in this mix?
“Yeah, I don’t think not getting out the mix is even a thought in my mind, you know, in any room. So, I know I have the utmost standards for myself, and I know all I could do is go out there and do what I got to do every day and make as minimal mistakes. And I know it’s long ways to go with everything and I know, I lack experience on this realm and on this level, but one thing I can hang my hat on is in all pressure situations, you know who I am.”
And I saw that your dad mentioned on the Michael Irvin podcast that he wanted to come here and see you, but you kind of wanted him to wait.
“Yeah, I told him don’t come.”
Why did you say that?
“Because, I mean, like I look at it at my own point of view. Like I don’t want him coming to see me right now because I want to get to where I want to go then for him to see me. I don’t want him to come and see me, you know, get a couple reps and you know, he’s cheering like a good dad. Like, nah, you can’t be proud of me right now. I got to get to where I’m going, and I know it’s a lot I got to do to get there. So, it’s kind of like I just want everything that I’m doing is just like focus on this time and I don’t want no distractions because we know out of media, we know how everybody would take it and take away from the team, just from him being my own dad showing up. So, you know, it’s a gift and a curse at the same time.”
Going off that, he said that he was excited for you to get preseason reps. He knows that they’re gonna have to play you preseason.
“Yeah, I think that’s bare minimum for sure. I think anybody plays preseason almost.”
How excited are you for that opportunity to kind of show out?
“Yeah, now I’m excited. I’ll say overall, you know, being able to be healthy to come to practice today and being able to go against an actual defense and get live reps and everything. So, I’m just thankful, I prepare each day as such, and I stay focused throughout everything. So, whenever it is my time to get out there, I’ll be able to be myself.”
What strengths of yours do you think can show up in a game setting that maybe we don’t see as much in practice?
“Have you watched me in college? Well, you know, a little bit of that going on. I’m still the same guy. You know, nothing happened to me. I’m the same guy. If anything, I’m a little bit stronger mentally, physically, emotionally, and the way how I handle different situations.”
Shedeur, you mentioned earlier about people hating on you. You’re blocking that out. And it seems like nobody’s neutral on Shedeur Sanders, right? Everybody loves you or I don’t know how many people hate you, but how do you block all that stuff out?
“How do I block out the noise? I would say it’s always been like, I always face adversity since growing up. In each level, it’s always been something. So, when you figure out how people come at you and life is a cycle, it keeps repeating over and over and over. Then you understand what game this is or what they’re doing, you know, so I can never feel less than. Nobody could ever make me mentally get out of position in the situation I am. I’m thankful for who I am. I’m thankful for who my dad is. I’m thankful for my family. And, you know, no one can make me feel bad about the blessing that I do have.”
Does that make it hard for you to trust people?
“No, I feel like trust is a deep thing, but it’s different levels of trust. You know, overall, it’s a lot of people that you’ll trust driving your car, but it’s a lot of people that you wouldn’t trust taking your kids somewhere or dropping your wife off at home. So, it’s different levels of trust overall. So, it doesn’t make me hard because I start out neutral. It’s a couple familiar faces I see out here, but others, not so much. But I don’t have a problem with anybody, so I live life free. But then, you know, whenever it’s negative, then it’s like, alright, you done caused this now. But, nah, I stay neutral with everything. I treat everybody with utmost respect, and you haven’t heard anything negative about my character in a minute.”
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