TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Shilo Sanders walked into his first news conference with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and immediately shook hands with each reporter.<\/p>\n
Coach Prime\u2019s son knows how to make a first impression on and off the field.<\/p>\n
Like his dad, Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders, Shilo displayed his engaging personality and commanded the interview room. He asked for beach recommendations and revealed that he plans to be the \u201csnack guy\u201d for the team\u2019s safety group.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, look at where we\u2019re at,\u201d Sanders said with a big smile. \u201cLook at the whole coaching staff. It\u2019s a really supportive coaching staff. Everybody wants to see everybody do good. Everybody on the team, we all want to see each other win. It\u2019s a great environment to thrive in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders, who signed with the Buccaneers after being passed up in the draft, impressed coach Todd Bowles on the first day of rookie camp with his intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike the rest of the safeties, he\u2019s very intelligent, he\u2019s very loud,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cYou can hear him (on the field), making calls and everything, so he has a good grasp of things Day 1. There was about three or four of them that did. He was one of them, but you have to make plays in pads. That\u2019s what it comes down to \u2014 knowing what to do and then doing it consistently and constantly getting better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Sanders even helped younger teammates with some of the defensive calls.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Shilo Sanders catches the ball during the NFL football team’s rookie minicamp Friday, May 9, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. Credit: AP\/Chris O’Meara<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very smart,\u201d rookie cornerback Jacob Parrish said. \u201cHe helped me a lot with the adjustments. I\u2019m excited to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
While younger brother, Shedeur Sanders, drew most of the attention during the draft after slipping to the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round, Shilo didn\u2019t get a call until hiring agent Drew Rosenhaus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey gave me a chance before anyone so I\u2019m forever grateful to the Buccaneers and I\u2019m just gonna do everything in my power to help this team win,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThat\u2019s all I want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shilo played in the shadow of his quarterback brother while they were coached by their father at Jackson State and Colorado. He wasn\u2019t expected to be a top-five pick like Shedeur but ended up in a favorable spot with the four-time defending NFC South champion Buccaneers, a team that needs help in the secondary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Shilo Sanders catches the ball during the NFL football team’s rookie minicamp Friday, May 9, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. Credit: AP\/Chris O’Meara<\/p>\n
\u201cMy take on being disappointed in lows is that it\u2019s not a real low because you can\u2019t change the past,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI just trust God, and I always end up doing something great, so I just know it\u2019s going to happen, and whatever is happening currently is to learn or grow from.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sanders missed three weeks last season at Colorado because of a broken forearm. He finished third on the Buffaloes with 67 total tackles, recovered two fumbles, including one he returned for a touchdown at Texas Tech. He had four forced fumbles, one recovery and a pick-6 his junior season.<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers need more playmakers in the secondary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just an \u2018it\u2019 thing. You either got it or you don\u2019t,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThroughout my whole career, I\u2019ve always been a guy who gets the ball out any way, shape or form. Forced fumbles, picks, I\u2019m gonna get the ball. That\u2019s the whole point of playing defense. We wanna get the offense the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his baby brother in Cleveland, Shilo said about Shedeur: \u201cHe\u2019s been missing me. He\u2019s been calling me like 6 a.m. He wants some brotherly love. His big brother isn\u2019t next him in practice but we talk a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Shilo Sanders walked into his first news conference with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and immediately…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,6,704,250,2597,2596,2309],"class_list":{"0":"post-42213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114490489314774012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}