Shedeur, Shilo Sanders haven’t hired agents

Some NFL players choose to represent themselves. For many, they’re better off being handled by a good agent. Only two in the incoming class have a Hall of Fame father who is also an accomplished college football coach.

In the list of new players and agents distributed by the NFL Players Association, two names don’t appear: Shedeur and Shilo Sanders. This means they’ve yet to hire agents. Which also means that, with the Scouting Combine days away, they currently don’t plan to.

The belief in league circles is that their father, Deion, will advise them. Which makes sense, for several reasons.

First, when it comes to rookie contracts, there’s not much to negotiate. Even if/when Shedeur goes early and Shilo (who wasn’t invited to the Combine) goes late, the labor deal has simplified the process of hammering out entry-level contracts.

Shedeur is expected to be one of the first quarterbacks drafted. He joins the likes of Caleb Williams and Lamar Jackson as high-end quarterbacks who opted not to hire an agent.

For Williams, not having an agent didn’t matter because he was the consensus, no-brainer, No. 1 pick. For Jackson, not having an established agent to fend off the pre-draft nonsense (e.g., he should change positions) might have contributed to Jackson — a two-time league MVP — sliding all the way to No. 32.

Shedeur will have a hype man and a defender in Deion. If anyone starts spreading about Shedeur what Deion would call “bulljunk,” Deion will engage. And he’s got the platform and the voice to register.

In the end, every player has to decide whether his interests are best served by hiring an agent. For some, the right move is to go it alone. For those looking simply to avoid paying a percentage to an agent by lining up a team of unlicensed (by the NFLPA) agents, bookkeepers, and/or lawyers to send and receive dummy emails, there might be a better approach.

For Shedeur and Shilo, they’ve decided the smart move is to do it themselves, with Deion’s help. Which means that, for them, their interests will be protected, and advanced.