TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie safety Shilo Sanders knows just as much as anyone that hitting the record button and going live on social platforms can mean experiencing wildly unpredictable and vulnerable moments -- high-highs and low-lows -- under the glare of a microscope.
It's attention he's welcomed throughout his teenage and adult life as the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders.
Viewers watched as Shilo and his younger brother, Shedeur Sanders, live streamed their three-day draft process on the platform Twitch -- with nearly one million people tuning in for the recap. Judging by the comments on social media -- many viewers came with well-wishes, while some seemed eager to survey carnage.
"Well, my take on being disappointed in 'lows' -- it's not really 'low' because you can't change the path and you can't really do anything about something that already happened," Sanders said during the Bucs' rookie camp last week. "So I just trust God, and I always end up doing something great so I just know it's going to happen and whatever's happening currently is to learn or to grow from."
The brothers both played for their father at Colorado, and with neither being selected on the first two days of the draft, Shedeur, who most predicted to be a first-round pick, and Shilo, a fringe draft pick, had to face the reality of the situation. So big brother shed some words of encouragement.
"See bro, I don't even know what they gonna do with me, bro, because they doing you like this," Sanders said, with the pair bursting into laughter. "If they doing him, making him wait, oh buddy ... me?! You're good, bro. You're good."
They had to wait five rounds before Shedeur was selected by the Cleveland Browns on Day 3, and Shilo went undrafted.
That meant taking what big brother felt was an important step in his NFL career -- firing his dad as his agent.
"Dad was our agent, but that hasn't been working out too good," Sanders said during the livestream. "So today I had to sign with an agent."
He hired Drew Rosenhaus, who informed teams that he was now representing Sanders. Soon after, Bucs general manager Jason Licht and coach Todd Bowles agreed to offer him a contract.
"I was on the stream because I streamed the whole draft," Sanders said. "So I was like, 'Alright y'all, I got to go talk to [my father], I got to go get on a team real quick, I'll be right back.' So I left. As soon as I walked down the stairs, my agent called and said, 'Bucs offering you a contract.' And I think I did the Dougie [dance] for about 15 minutes. But I'm just so grateful for the opportunity for them, give me this chance when nobody else would at that time."
Then Bowles, who, like Deion Sanders (also known as Coach Prime), himself has had to navigate two children playing college football -- Todd Jr. first at Rutgers and now at Long Island University, and Troy, who transferred from Georgia to Michigan this spring -- got on the phone.
"He's a great coach, great leader and he's very knowledgeable about this game," Shilo said. "To have a guy like that that I could just go talk to whenever and learn football and he also helped me get this opportunity -- him and my dad got on the phone right after I signed, and he told 'em that they was interested in me and they can't wait to see what I can do here -- and I just want to make everybody proud, especially coach Bowles."
Coach Prime said on the stream, "Coach Bowles is defensive-minded guy. He's brilliant. He's a good brother, too, man. A good brother. Good human being. Good man. I'm excited for you."
But Sanders still has work to do to make the team.
The Bucs didn't select a safety in this year's NFL draft, and Sanders is one of two rookie undrafted free agents at the position who participated in last weekend's rookie minicamp, with the other being J.J. Roberts out of Marshall. But Tampa has a lot of versatile defensive backs.
The Bucs already have Antoine Winfield Jr. as their starting free safety. The plan is to have last year's starting nickelback and third-round draft pick, Tykee Smith, try out the strong safety position as they want him on the field for every snap, but that's not set in stone.
"I don't really know [what he's capable of] until we see him as an every down safety because it really is a different position," safeties coach Nick Rapone said earlier this week of Smith. "The safety position you have to start to communicate more and talk to other people more. So we'll see how it goes through Phase 2 of OTAs, minicamp and really into fall."
Their starting nickelback from the previous year, Christian Izien, is in the mix to compete for the starting nickelback job and is working at free safety too, and rookie cornerback Jacob Parrish is getting some looks at inside and outside cornerback. Then there's Kaevon Merriweather, who can play both safety spots and was active for 30 games the last two seasons with seven starts. Former Mississippi State safety Marcus Banks also spent time on the practice squad last year.
For Sanders, the Bucs want to see him make some plays like he did in college. He had one interception -- an 80-yard pick-six -- a sack, five pass breakups, five forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries in 21 games at Colorado from 2023 to 2024. At Jackson State in 2021, he registered 39 tackles, four interceptions, seven pass breakups and two forced fumbles. He suffered a torn ACL the following season, limiting him to seven games with 20 tackles and an interception. He also suffered a fractured right forearm in college.
"The Bucs was the first team to call and they gave me a chance before anyone," Sanders said. "So I'm forever grateful to the Buccaneers, and I'm just going to do everything I can to help this team win -- everything in my power to help this team win -- and that's all I want."
Sanders, who ran a 4.52 second time in the 40-yard dash at Colorado's pro day, has been very vocal so far as he tries to make the team, but his best shot may be the practice squad.
"Like the rest of the safeties, he's very intelligent, he's very loud," Bowles said. "You can hear him today, 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's what it comes down to -- knowing what to do and then doing it consistently and constantly getting better every day."
Sanders hasn't overlooked any detail of the process, which has allowed him to be a leader, but he's also already figured out how to get in good with the safeties' group chat: Come bearing gifts.
"I'm going to be the snack guy, so we just going to get a wholesale. I'm going to have everything everybody needs," Sanders said with a laugh. "The meetings are really long, so I understand. ... I might have a little spreadsheet with everybody's favorite stuff on there. You know what I'm saying?
"I have to bring my own [snacks]. I got to make sure that the vets are good. You know what I'm saying? Because they really been helping me and teaching me a lot of stuff. I'm really grateful for that. So that's the least I can do."
Sanders worked out at Plant High School in Tampa prior to the start of rookie camp. He connected with Winfield, who gave him some pointers on who to connect with on the coaching staff, and he made it a point to meet with assistant secondary coach and former NFL safety Rashad Johnson after practice.
As Sanders goes through the process, so does his younger brother. They may be walking different paths as they enter the NFL, but the goal is the same, so their support of each other is unwavering.
"He's been missing me," Sanders said. "He'll call me at like 6 a.m. on the same schedule right now. Actually I think he's doing an interview right now, too. So he wants some brotherly love. He misses me and stuff. His big brother's not next to him no more in practice and we talk a lot."
As for how he's handling the time being away from family, he's been able to lean on his freshman season South Carolina, which he attended from 2019 to 2020 before joining his father and brother at Jackson State.
"I think every step of my life, everything that God put me through prepared me for things that happen in the future for me," Sanders said. "So South Carolina and going there and getting on a new team, new environment, new locker room, new coaches and having to work my way up from not playing at all to getting some playing time and what it takes to be trusted by the coaches -- that taught me a lot. And as a safety, you got to be trusted knowledge-wise and that comes from preparation and studying and that's all I've been doing this whole time."