Shilo Sanders’ Tampa Bay career imploded almost as quickly as it began. The undrafted safety signed with the team in 2025 and even impressed during training camp. But after an in-game altercation and a thrown punch, he was cut from the roster. His dream of making a name for himself in the NFL may be over, but there are still teams he would want to sign for.

“Probably the Dolphins because I’m already in Miami,” Sanders replied to a question on his Kick stream.

The Cleveland Browns were already an ‘obvious’ choice, as the person asking the question pointed out, considering his brother, Shedeur Sanders, plays there. “Yeah, third would be the Cowboys,” Sanders added.

It was more of a hypothetical question for Sanders. Although nothing is official yet, he is effectively retired from the sport. Earlier this week, he revealed that he is no longer training for the NFL.

“I just be like working out like just as a human,” he said on his YouTube channel. “But training and stuff, like getting ready, and you have a set day, like camp starts, like a whole different type of training. It takes a special kind of guy to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I don’t think there’s any light in my tunnel.”

Sanders has now pivoted into a career as a digital creator, building a loyal audience of more than 300,000 subscribers on YouTube. He’s streaming, vlogging, and using his natural charm, along with his famous last name, to pull in viewers.

Shilo’s brother, Shedeur, was selected by the Browns in the 2025 NFL Draft and is expected to compete for the QB1 spot alongside Deshaun Watson. Meanwhile, his father, Deion Sanders, aka Coach Prime, is widely regarded as one of the greatest cornerbacks in NFL history. But after 10 months without finding a team to spark a comeback journey, Shilo had to hit pause on his sporting career.

Speaking candidly in a YouTube video from September 2025, he admitted that it felt strange for him to suddenly live the life of a non-athlete.

“I’ve been playing sports my whole life since I was four or five years old,” he explained. So this is the first time I’ve actually had free time. Everyone knows when you’re undrafted, it’s not certain that you’re gonna be on the team.” 

Shilo Sanders thought Tampa Bay would be his NFL home

Shilo never managed to climb the depth chart. Even after J.J. Roberts suffered an injury, the Bucs continued to favor returning safeties Kaevon Merriweather and Rashad Wisdom over Sanders.

There was plenty of buzz around Sanders last season as he arrived in Tampa. He was a Sanders after all, and came with a solid college background from South Carolina and Colorado.

During offseason workouts, he showed real promise and also looked decent across the three preseason games he played, logging 83 snaps and four tackles. But when the time came for roster cuts, his name was on the list.

On his stream, Shilo admitted he was surprised. “No, bro, I thought Tampa was gonna pick me back up because I know the playbook really good,” he said. “Tampa’s, I like living in Tampa though. Tampa’s nice.”

The Buccaneers, however, may have felt Shilo was not exactly being too “nice.” His on-field behavior during his final preseason appearance raised eyebrows after he was ejected for punching Bills tight end Zach Davidson in the second quarter of the game.

“You can’t throw punches in this league. I mean, that’s inexcusable,” coach Todd Bowles said about Sanders in the post-game press conference.

Roughly 24 hours later, he lost his spot on the roster.