Heather Dinich: Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders 'doesn't have anything to prove' in 2024

The Colorado Buffaloes are coming off a frustrating season in 2023. In particular, it was a challenge for quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who flashed his talent but was behind a weak offensive line and finished the season injured.

Despite that, ESPN college football insider Heather Dinich said on Get Up that Shedeur Sanders has nothing to prove. The key is to get better play around him.

“He doesn’t have anything to prove,” Heather Dinich said. “He is great. He’s accurate. He’s tough. Any NFL scout that has watched him knows this. But look at those numbers. Blown block percentage 55 percent. Do you guys want to stand back there? Because I sure don’t. He’s got to stay on his feet and he’s got to stay healthy.”

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Shedeur Sanders finished the 2023 season with a 69.3 percent completion percentage for 3,230 yards and 27 touchdowns to only three interceptions. It was an impressive season but it also came with some major issues, like that Colorado only won four games and Sanders was injured by the end of the year.

The offensive line was widely seen as a major issue and it’s not a surprise why. Colorado was 132nd out of 133 teams in terms of sacks allowed in 2023, giving up 56. That’s 4.67 sacks per game. The poor offensive line play carried over into the running game, with the Buffaloes finishing 133rd in rushing offense, with 68.92 yards per game on the ground. That meant defenses were able to sit back in coverage, knowing they would be able to pin their ears back and pressure Sanders.

Despite all those major issues on the offensive line, Heather Dinich thinks the team’s issues went beyond it and also fell on the defense, which finished 124th in scoring defense, giving up 34.8 points per game.

“But it is more than the offensive line,” Dinich said. “This is a Colorado team last year that scored 30, 40 points and the defense was ranked 124th in the country in scoring defense.”

For Deion Sanders, the focus has clearly been on improving the entire roster and offensive line play in particular this offseason. That’s included a heavy dose of Transfer Portal usage to build around the stars like Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. In fact, Colorado has brought in 41 transfers to the program.

Among those transfers, Colorado has essentially recruited an entirely new offensive line to protect Shedeur Sanders, with five offensive linemen joining from the portal alone.