BOULDER, Colo. − Several years before they became the top two quarterback prospects in the NFL draft, Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward both made the same decision that helped them get to where they are today.
They hired Darrell Colbert Jr., a private quarterbacks trainer from Houston.
Both knew Colbert separately through connections in Texas, and each could be seen working with him this spring at their separate pro-day events at Miami and Colorado. Now as they get ready for the draft on April 24, arguably nobody is more informed than Colbert to answer this $40 million question:
Which one of your pupils is better, Darrell?
Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward?
“I think Cam Sanders or Shedeur Ward is better,” Colbert told USA TODAY Sports in a recent interview.
Colbert has reason to joke and feel good these days. This draft has been a long time coming for the three of them. Colbert started working with Ward more than four years ago. Sanders has worked with Colbert since his junior year of high school and knew him several years before that. Asked by USA TODAY Sports what Colbert meant to his development, Sanders summed it up in one word:
“Everything,” the Colorado quarterback said.
Their rise together is a story about how relationships and attention to detail brought them to the top after years of work outside the spotlight of major college football – Ward at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Sanders at Jackson State in Mississippi. Colbert himself finished his college career as a quarterback at Lamar University in Texas, having led the Cardinals to their first-ever berth in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs in 2018.
Now look at them. Ward, the Miami quarterback, is expected to be the No. 1 overall pick and earn a four-year contract worth around $40 million. Sanders, son of Colorado coach Deion Sanders, could follow him in the draft soon after.
“It’s surreal that we’re going through this,” Colbert said. “But even for those guys, it’s almost kind of just normal, because they’ve always seen it, and I’ve always seen it in them from the way that they work and they prepare.”
Here’s how it came to be.
How Shedeur Sanders met Darrell Colbert Jr.
Colbert has been around football his whole life as the son of Darrell Colbert Sr., who played receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1987 and 1988. The son was a good quarterback himself in high school and attracted scholarship offers from many colleges as an “athlete” prospect but wanted to play quarterback instead. Yale offered him a chance to play quarterback. So did SMU in Dallas, where then-Mustangs coach June Jones compared his style to current NFL quarterback Russell Wilson.
He ended up staying at SMU for only three seasons before transferring closer to home at Lamar in 2017. But he met somebody at SMU who became a key link to where he is now as a quarterbacks guru – Deion Sanders Jr., a teammate of his at SMU . His relationship with the Sanders family grew from there, leading him to Shedeur, who then was in middle school.
About six years later, Shedeur credited Colbert for his development.
“Just the whole throwing motion, everything changed; everything’s better,” Shedeur said when USA TODAY Sports asked him about Colbert in November. “Footwork’s better overall…. We just cleaned up a lot of things, just overstriding and tidying up everything. He definitely contribute a lot to my career and everything that’s going on so far and just me developing as a quarterback. It help me a lot.”
Ward also credited Colbert with improving his game, though the two quarterbacks have different styles. Colbert has compared Ward’s style to that of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He compared Shedeur’s game to that of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
Colbert conducted a workout with the two NFL prospects earlier this year in Las Vegas.
‘I throw the ball downfield. You don’t’
Deion Sanders Jr. documented the workout on his YouTube channel, where the two QBs are shown in friendly rivalry.
Ward teased Shedeur by telling them he got “a completion percentage award” when “all you did” was throw short screen passes.
“That’s actually crazy,” Ward told Shedeur Sanders. “If I did that, my competition percentage would be 90. I throw the ball downfield. You don’t.”
Shedeur, who led the nation in completion percentage last season (74%), fired back in jest by reminding him he ran a different offense. Colorado ranked last nationally in rushing yards per game at 65.2 yards per game, compared to 188.9 for Miami, which ranked 31st.
“You ran the ball,” Shedeur said. “You had a run game.”
“You didn’t?” Ward asked him.
“No!” Shedeur said.
In Ward’s case, he’s known Colbert since early in his college career at UIW.
How Cam Ward met Darrell Colbert Jr.
Colbert said Ward’s father saw the work he was doing with another Colbert client who happens to be Ward’s cousin — Kyron Drones, a Houston-area product who is now the quarterback Virginia Tech. He reached out to him to get him to start a working relationship with his son.
“He’s very good at what he does,” Calvin Ward told USA TODAY Sports about Colbert. “But what Cameron really likes about him is you have some quarterback coaches who say, `Oh no, the ball should always come from over the top.’ With Darrell, he lets Cameron be Cameron, and he refines the things he needs to. He doesn’t try to change his arm or anything. He lets him be Cameron, and he fine-tunes him with things like accuracy, footwork and decision-making.”
Colbert has tutored Ward ever since, including when he played at Washington State in 2022 and 2023. In the latter season, Colbert beamed in a photo with his two pupils after they faced each other in a game in Pullman, Wash. Ward and Washington State beat Colorado that day, 56-14. Shedeur was knocked out of the game with an injury in the first half. Ward completed 18 of 30 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns.
Cam Ward said Colbert has had a “big impact” on his progression as quarterback since UIW.
“Darrell, he gets us right,” Ward said last season. “He also lets us have our own little style in the workouts, just to how we play our game. But you know, he makes us hone in on the little things, and that’s why I feel like I’ve been better.”
The “little things” are Colbert’s specialty.
How it all started for Colbert
Colbert got into quarterback training in 2019, almost right after his own college playing career ended at Lamar. His “Select QB Athletics” business in Houston now has “probably over 200” clients, mostly in the Houston area, Colbert said.
It all sort of stems from his youth, when his dad would take to quarterback training camps. His height – at 5-foot-11, also meant he had to pay attention to the “little things” as quarterback to make up for his lack of physical stature as a QB. That includes fundamental mechanics like footwork.
“I knew especially at my height, I knew I had to be that much better at my mechanics and that much better at a lot of stuff,” Colbert said. “So I learned a lot when I was playing. And then once I got into the coaching aspect of it, I learned I had to sharpen my game. The game had changed, adapt, so I went and learned from a lot of different people and did a lot of research and added that to my bag as well.”
Colbert briefly pursued a pro career as a player and participated in his own pro day at Lamar. He trained then with Jerrod Johnson, now the quarterbacks coach of the Houston Texans. It was Johnson who noticed his attention to detail.
“Ever thought about training?” Johnson asked him, according to Colbert.
“He gave me the idea and I kind of ran with it from there,” Colbert said.
Now comes the NFL draft
Colbert said he’s a “small piece” of his clients’ success and saw their first-round potential long ago.
“Those guys are doing all the work,” Colbert said. “I’m just out there, telling them what to do, and just trying to collect the little things I may see. But when you’ve got athletes that are as good as they are and they understand how to work with intent, it makes my job very easy.”
He also said he hopes they’re the first and second picks in the draft.
“But man, my biggest thing is I just hope they get in the position where they’re able to be set up for success,” Colbert said.
In a way, they already are – a credit to him.
“The special thing about those guys is they always knew this was gonna happen,” Colbert said. “Of course everybody says that, but these were guys that even when they were at the FCS level, it was always talked about, them being first-round quarterbacks.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com