Even though they were more than thrilled to land a five-star recruit in Julian Lewis, the Colorado Buffaloes had no intentions of starting him. However, when both Ryan Staub and Kaidon Salter began to falter, Deion Sanders was left with no choice, and the freshman would end up playing in four games throughout the season, starting in two of them.
Advertisement
The NFL Hall of Famer wanted to protect Lewis’ red-shirt status, so he made the call to leave him on the sidelines for their final game of the season against the Kansas State Wildcats. Now that it’s all over, Lewis will head into 2026 as the presumptive QB1 for the Buffaloes.
But even though he’s now the heir to the throne that Shedeur Sanders built, their NIL valuations have been anything but comparable. By the time he had received his 2024 Golden Arm award, Sanders was actively preparing for the 2025 NFL Draft, where he was initially advertised as an early first-round pick.
While we all know that he would ultimately go on to suffer the most unprecedented fall in the history of the NFL Draft, the fact that Sanders had left college with $6.5 million in NIL dealings certainly helped to cushion the blow. Unfortunately, Lewis’s last name isn’t Sanders, so even though he now holds his former job title, he’s yet to garner the same type of attention that Sanders did.
While most folks would have a hard time complaining about $1.1 million, which is the current total amount of Lewis’ NIL valuation, it is worth remembering that this is just the 58th highest total amongst all active college football players. Of course, once he’s formally announced as the Buffs’ QB1 and starts to deliver some wins, that total figures to climb much higher, but for now, he’ll have to be content with his place outside of the top 50.
In spite of this, however, Lewis has been nothing but generous towards those around him, especially his teammates. Prior to Colorado’s final home game of the season, Lewis wanted to make sure that the entire herd was able to travel in comfort.
So, after his latest NIL deal with JLab headphones was finalized, he made sure that each and every single member of the roster received a pair just in time for their flight to Kansas.
https://twitter.com/CUBuffsFootball/status/1994564884709933288?s=20
He may not have solidified himself in Colorado just yet, but Lewis’ generosity has surely helped to create some early chemistry between him and his teammates, and that alone will make the start to the 2026 training period a lot smoother for all of them. After all, when your quarterback is actively gifting you luxury goods on a routine basis, it’s not hard to find the extra motivation that’s needed to block for him on game day.
