While getting drafted in the later rounds is no guarantee of making an NFL team, those odds get even slimmer when it comes to undrafted free agents landing on a 53-man roster at any point in the season.
In the case of UDFA safety Shilo Sanders, it’s already shaping up like a longshot that he’ll ever see the field for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a regular season game.
“The Colorado safety was considered a fringe Day 3 prospect at best going into the event, but teams ultimately elected to go different directions rather than roll the dice on a 25-year-old defensive back with limited potential,” Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay wrote on May 6, estimating the odds of Sanders making the roster at just 10 percent. ” … The Bucs are incurring almost no financial risk by signing Sanders (he would make just $840,000 by earning a spot on the final roster), but the rookie faces a brutal journey to secure that money.”
Calling Sanders’ road to making the roster “brutal” might be a bit of a stretch, especially considering Tampa Bay had some of the worst safeties in the NFL in 2024 without NFL All-Pro Antoine Winfield Jr., who missed a career high 7 games with various injuries.
Still, it wont’ be an easy path for the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders and older brother of Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
Sanders Would Have to Leapfrog 4 Players on Roster
In order to make the Buccaneers’ roster, Sanders would likely have to leapfrog quite a few players, including several who were on the team in 2024. That’s not including Winfield, who signed a 4-year, $84.1 million contract extension in May 2024 that made him the highest paid safety in NFL history.
According to OurLads.com, Sanders is currently fourth on the depth chart at free safety behind Christian Izien, Marcus Banks and J.J. Roberts and should be considered seventh out of seven safeties currently on Tampa Bay’s roster.
That makes Sanders’ path to a roster spot is pretty simple — show you can be an effective backup option at both safety spots and show you can be a special teams standout. Do that, and there’s a chance.
Tracking Sanders’ Production in College
While much of the discussion around Sanders has been over his family ties and his outsized personality off the field, it’s worth pointing out that he was a pretty effective member of the secondary — albeit for 3 different teams over 6 college football seasons.
Sanders started his career at South Carolina in 2019 and had 32 tackles in 13 games — including the pandemic shortened 2020 season — before transferring to play for his father at Jackson State in 2021 and 2022.
Sanders was an All-SWAC pick in 2021 with 39 tackles, 4 interceptions, 7 pass deflections and 2 forced fumbles. At Colorado, Sanders led the Buffaloes with 70 tackles in 2023 and had 67 tackles in 2024 despite missing almost all of 3 games due to an injury.
In 4 seasons of FBS football, Sanders finished his career with 170 tackles in 34 games, including 4 TFL, 6 pass deflections, 5 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries and 2 defensive touchdowns.
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