Are the Las Vegas Raiders already eyeing their future head coach?
ESPN analyst Mike Greenberg pitched the idea of Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders to the Raiders on the network’s morning show Get Up, suggesting that the organization is an attractive destination.
“The team a lot of people are going to look at is going to be Vegas,” Greenberg said. “For the conversation you’re having. They figure to have a high pick, they need a quarterback, they got shut out last year.”
While Coach Prime is seeing more NFL buzz, it appears his fate at the professional level is directly tied to his son and Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. While connections to the Dallas Cowboys have been made, Greenberg’s co-host Harry Douglas insinuated that the Raiders have the inside track due to their connections with Shedeur.
“I think the [Raiders part-owner] Tom Brady angle of it is very important because Shedeur Sanders trained and worked out with Tom Brady,” Douglass said. “So, the relationship is there between Shedeur and Tom Brady. Deion Sanders and Tom Brady. Also, we’ve seen, recently, Shedeur at a basketball game with and the owner of the Las Vegas Raiders [Mark Davis] was there, talking about how much he enjoyed Shedeur Sanders.”
While some Raiders fans might be excited about bringing in the Sanders family as a package deal, there are plenty of reasons to assume the pairing will not happen.
First off, there have been no real indications of current Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce being on the hot seat, and it is unfair to judge him in his first full season when it was rife with injuries, drama with star players, and issues at the quarterback position.
Second, there is also zero evidence suggesting Sanders has any intention to make the jump to the NFL, now or ever.
“I don’t have any desire or ambition to coach in the NFL,” Sanders told Sports Illustrated in June. “I have a problem with men getting their checks and not doing their jobs. I would be too tough as a coach in the NFL because I still have those old-school attributes.”
Lastly, the transition from college football to the pros is incredibly difficult. Acclaimed college coaches have traditionally struggled to make it work in the NFL, usually failing to adapt to the differences in acquiring players and build a winning culture in a professional locker room. For every Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll who has managed to make it work at the NFL level, there is an Urban Meyer, Bobby Petrino, and Matt Rhule that emphatically flops. Even Harbaugh and Carroll had a decade plus of NFL experience before jumping into the college head coaching ranks, making the transition to NFL head coach easier for them.
While the idea of Deion and Shedeur Sanders on an NFL sideline together is a tantalizing prospect for some, there is no guarantee that it is little more than a pipe dream.
