Benched Julian Lewis Settles For $1.1 Million NIL Money Despite Shedeur Sanders’ $6.5 Million Boost Last Year

Even though Julian Lewis is a five-star recruit, 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 ended up playing in four games this season, starting in two of them.

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 Lewis is now the heir to the throne that Shedeur Sanders occupied last year, their NIL valuations have been anything but comparable. By the time he received his 2024 Golden Arm award, Shedeur was actively preparing for the 2025 NFL Draft, where he was touted as an early first-round pick.

While we all know about his unprecedented fall in the NFL Draft, the fact that Sanders had left college with $6.5 million in NIL dealings certainly helped to cushion the blow. Lewis’s last name isn’t Sanders. So even though he now holds Shedeur’s former job title, he’s yet to garner the same type of attention that Coach Prime’s son did.

Most folks would have nothing to complain about $1.1 million, which is the current NIL valuation of Lewis. But this is just the 58th-highest total amongst all active college football players.

Of course, once Lewis is 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 generous toward those around him, especially his teammates. Before 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 member of the roster received a pair just in time for their flight to Kansas.

Juju got the crew right 🎧#GoBuffs | @JLabAudio pic.twitter.com/NdF4cUtnxz

— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) November 29, 2025

He may not have solidified himself in Colorado just yet, but Lewis’ generosity has helped 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 the team.

After all, when your quarterback is actively gifting you, it’s not hard to find the extra motivation needed to block for him on game day.