Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders wins the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the best college quarterback

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders added some hardware to his trophy case on Saturday when he was announced as the winner of the 2024 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Since 2000, it has been awarded annually to the best quarterback in the country.

And Sanders — the first Colorado quarterback to win the award — is coming off a stellar 2024 season that has led the Buffaloes to the brink of the College Football Playoff and beyond. He has also emerged as arguably the best quarterback eligible for the draft this year.

Sanders enters Colorado’s regular season finale against Oklahoma State had completed 73.4% of his passes for 3,488 yards and 30 touchdowns with seven interceptions as of Friday. He also had four rushing touchdowns as the Buffaloes entered their matchup with the Cowboys at 8-3 and ranked in the top 25.

Entering the final weekend of the regular season, Sanders ranked in the top five nationally in completion percentage, passes attempted, passing yards and passing touchdowns and was ranked No. 8 nationally in pass efficiency.

And Sanders is not afraid of his talents and abilities.

There are rumors that Sanders could be the best quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft. In November, he was asked whether he should do that and made his stance clear.

“I think I was the best quarterback in the last draft too,” Sanders said, according to Bryan Fischer.

There were a lot of talented quarterbacks in last year’s NFL Draft. Former USC star Caleb Williams went No. 1 overall to the Bears while first LSU star Jayden Daniels was selected by the Commanders with the No. 2 overall pick.

Other quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft were Drake Maye, Michael Penix Jr., JJ McCarthy And Bo Nix. This is certainly a talented group of young QBs, but Sanders believes he is better than all of them.

As far as the 2025 NFL Draft is concerned, other quarterbacks besides Sanders are also fighting for the top spot Cam Ward from Miami, Carson Beck from Georgia And Jalen Milroe from Alabama. All four of those quarterbacks were listed as first-round picks in ESPN’s latest mock draft, with Sanders going No. 1 overall.