Deion Sanders told Antonio Pierce to select his sons Shedeur and Shilo in the 2025 NFL Draft - but the Las Vegas Raiders decided to fire the head coach.
On Tuesday, the Raiders dismissed Pierce after a single full season as head coach. The AFC West franchise went 4-13, winning two of their final three games to end a 10-game losing streak when their season was all but over.
The Raiders have now gone from Jon Gruden, who resigned in 2021, to Josh McDaniels, who was fired in 2023, to firing Pierce immediately after the 2024 season. It will be intriguing to see which direction the Raiders go, as the franchise has been heavily linked with a quarterback in the upcoming draft.
Shedeur is projected to come off the board early and could be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Alongside Florida’s Cam Ward, the 22-year-old represents the most intriguing quarterback prospect on offer after winning the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is given annually to the nation's top upperclassman quarterback in college football, and the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year award.
Across the 2024 season, Shedeur threw for 4,134 yards and 37 touchdowns with 10 interceptions on a nation-leading 74.2 percent completion rate. But it’s unclear if the Raiders will be able to select him at No. 6 unless they trade up.
Colorado head coach Sanders has been adamant that Las Vegas would be a good landing spot for his son. Speaking at an event in Sin City last month, he shared the stage with Pierce before declaring his hopes for next year’s draft.
“You are truly the best,” Sanders told Pierce. “Now I just need you to do one thing: I need you to draft those Sanders boys.”
Both Shedeur and his father have directly referenced their hopes to land with the Raiders, where their close friend and mentor Tom Brady is a minority owner. The seven-time Super Bowl champion trained with Shedeur at the behest of his father and then signed the quarterback to an NIL deal with Brady’s apparel brand in 2022.
Last summer, Sanders also said: “I love what (Antonio Pierce) brings to the table. I don’t want him to lose to the point where he has the ability to get Shedeur. Let’s get that straight. I don’t want that to happen, I really don’t, but I wouldn’t mind if, some kind of way, it happens that (Shedeur) is here.”
