BOULDER, Colo. — Welcome, Shedeur Sanders, to the Who’s Who of Who Cares. Jayden Daniels didn’t throw at the NFL combine last year. Neither did Caleb Williams. Or Drake Maye.

They went No. 2, No. 1 and No. 3 overall, respectively. Really sank their draft stocks, didn’t it?

Sanders tossed the ball 907 times at Colorado. Between Jackson State and the Buffs, he chucked it 1,803 times as a collegian. So what if he’s not throwing at Indy this week? What will a shuttle run at Lucas Oil show that the tape hasn’t underscored already?

“It’s a man’s league,” Dave Syvertsen, a senior draft analyst with Ourlads scouting, told me when I asked about Sanders and his NFL future before the start of the 2024 season. “At the QB position, you’re the leader of the franchise, and I don’t know if he has that in him. But he hasn’t proven it yet.”

Thus, the interviews. The 1-on-1s. The get-to-know-me sit-downs.

If the Tennessee Titans indeed want a “generational talent” with the No. 1 pick, they’ll snap up Sanders' teammate, Travis Hunter. But if it’s a QB1 who’s ready from the jump, give me Sanders over Cam Ward.

Talent? Charisma? Chutzpah? When compared to his old pal from Miami, Shedeur wins on all three counts. Son of Prime is the Joe Namath of his generation — brash, honest, unflappable and smooth in front of the cameras.

Stability? Since 2023, Sanders completed 67% or better of his throws in 17 out of 24 appearances. Ward over that same stretch hit that mark 13 times over 25 games.

Constancy? Over the last two seasons, the former Buffs signal-caller threw for two or more scores in a game 19 times in 24 tilts (79.1% of the time), while Ward found the end zone multiple times in 19 of 25 contests (76%).

“He took some sacks (in 2023) that he probably shouldn’t have,” Jon Cooper, associate general manager at Ourlads, said of Sanders. “He needs to set his feet a little bit better, but his supporting cast wasn’t the best.

“His accuracy, getting the ball in on those intermediate throws, those are some of the things that (teams want) in a QB. He’s got that. Then potentially, you’re a No. 1 pick in the draft.”

No, scouts don’t love the “hero ball” moments. Sanders will have to get rid of the ball quicker at the next level and be more willing to give up on a play — for his own physical health as much as his offensive coordinator’s sanity.

But on the field? There’s not much left to prove. The bigger question front offices have is about fit. The receptivity to being coached by, and maybe berated by, a stranger.

The upside of being coached by a Pro Football Hall of Fame dad your entire football life is the assumption of standards, on and off the field. The downside is that no team, and no general manager, knows what’s going to happen once stuff hits the fan. And it will. For rookies, it always does.

“I think the big thing is, even Tiger Woods needed a caddie, right?” CU offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur offered a few months back. “So, as a coach, even Tiger Woods had to be reminded, ‘You know, hit the 6-iron. Well, no, please, just hit the 6-iron.’ I think that’s kind of the role (for me with Sanders) because he’s so smart.

“I can call a play — we have an example where we get in (an) empty (formation) and we just call hitches and I’ll say, ‘Play with it.’ And then he can change all the routes. And that whole play could look totally different. But I trust him to do that because he’s really good at it. So I’ve got a great appreciation for him. And I’m looking forward to him just killing it at the next level.”

Joe Burrow didn’t throw in 2020. Kyler Murray didn’t throw in 2019. Andrew Luck didn’t throw in 2012. Matthew Stafford didn’t throw in 2009. All four wound up being the first overall pick.

“If one of these NFL teams doesn’t select (Sanders),” Shurmur said, “then I think they’re taking the second-best quarterback.”

If you’re the seventh or the 17th-ranked QB in a draft class, you’ll bus tables at Indy’s St. Elmo Steak House to erase doubts at the combine. But when you hold the cards, you set the terms. You let them come to you.

It’s a man’s league. Everything’s a business decision now. And not throwing for the cameras when you’ve got so little to gain is the right one.

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