A late-season injury and a brutal seven-sack game marked a major setback for Colorado freshman Julian Lewis, but that hasn’t stopped Deion Sanders’ OC from sharing praise for the 18-year-old. Moreover, the OC made a lofty comparison of Lewis to an established NFL quarterback.

“He’s still young. People forget that he skipped his senior year,” Colorado’s OC Brennan Marion said to On3’s Pete Nakos. “He’s a very young player. He’s maturing every day; he’s getting better every day. I tell him, as long as it’s a small step forward every day, he’s doing what he needs to do to get better. But as far as his arm talent, he is in the class of Quinn Ewers and those types of guys when you talk about being able to throw the ball at an elite level.”

The comparison was to Quinn Ewers, who recently inked his rookie deal with the Miami Dolphins worth over $4.3 million. By invoking a new NFL quarterback, Marion underscored that Lewis already flashes Sunday-ready arm talent.

The comparison holds up, as both quarterbacks possess elite accuracy, strong arm strength, and high football IQ, consistently making smart plays and extending them with pure athleticism under pressure. Lewis’s decision-making also draws comparisons with Bryce Young’s.

Since the start of the 2025 season, Julian Lewis was making a buzz around taking over the QB1 position, but it soon turned into a three-way tug of war between Kaidon Salter, Ryan Staub, and him. When both experienced QBs flinched, Deion Sanders trusted Lewis, who played in four games, starting in two. He finished the season completing 52 of 94 passes for 589 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions.

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His first start was against West Virginia. The team may have lost the match, but Julian Lewis showed his true caliber. He completed 22 of 35 passes for 299 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions. Despite getting sacked seven times during the game, the offensive line couldn’t protect its quarterback. Something that Shedeur Sanders faced in the 2024 season.

This gauntlet served as Lewis’s major setback, as he battled a late-season throwing arm injury, lost his starting job, and absorbed a seven-sack beating against West Virginia. Yet, his ability to maintain elite mechanics through a 3-0 campaign is exactly what validates Marion’s high-profile NFL comparison.

There was no clear veteran QB like Shedeur Sanders to look up to. Salter started off strong, but he wasn’t consistent; his two interceptions against Houston and three against TCU were a clear example of the shakeup. Even Staub couldn’t do much for the team as he recorded just 427 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions.

All of this came in his freshman year. What’s interesting is that this guy reclassified himself from the 2026 to the 2025 class, which makes the development even more shocking. With no established veteran presence, the pressure was on Lewis to perform, and he delivered. Well, football is in his blood, as he is the son of former UConn player T.C. Lewis, and his performance shows the legacy he is trying to build in college football, but not everyone takes the risk that JuJu took with Colorado.

Julian Lewis’s immense trust in Deion Sanders’ system

Colorado lost 45 players in the portal, and among them, they lost one of the major offensive weapons, Jordan Seaton, who allowed very few sacks last season. Without him, Deion Sanders’ offensive line comes in with skepticism. But despite that scare, Julian Lewis didn’t leave the program. With the transfer portal and NIL making players’ lives easy, staying at a place where you’ve already seen so many inconsistencies is not something every player signs up for.

But his loyalty stayed with the team. Returning to the team as a projected starter also brings in a lot of pressure on JuJu, as Deion Sanders is hoping for a turnaround season with the Buffs. Another major drawback is the entire new system and coaching staff. After Pat Shurmur’s move to the NFL, the team gets a very small time to adjust to Marion’s system. Even developing chemistry between players is a tough task.

But against all odds, Julian Lewis chose to stay with the Buffs and didn’t make any transfer portal move. Lewis is betting on himself and Deion Sanders’ program, and the upcoming season will reveal if that gamble pays off.