For the first two years of Deion Sanders’ tenure at Colorado, quarterback was the furthest thing from a worry for Coach Prime.

He declared his son, Shedeur, the starting quarterback at his opening press conference in December 2022 and for two seasons, Shedeur lived up to his billing and delivered one of the best stints by a Buffaloes quarterback in program history with over 7,300 passing yards and 64 touchdowns.

But, after a drama-filled NFL draft process, Shedeur is a member of the Cleveland Browns and CU has to prepare for life without him under center.

Here are all the names to know in the Buffs quarterback room:

The veteran favorite

Heading into the summer, there still feels like one clear favorite in the clubhouse: Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter. Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur made it clear in the leadup to the bowl game that the Buffs were interested in bringing a veteran QB to potentially bridge the gap from Sanders to the next young star and just a few days after saying that, CU received a commitment from one of the top quarterbacks in the transfer portal.

The amount of quarterbacks changing schools this offseason reached a point we’ve yet to see in the new era of college football, and still, Salter ranked as the 13th-best in the portal at the position, per On3.

In a pre-Coach Prime era, adding a player like Salter would’ve been monumental news for the program. Now, there’s not even a guarantee he’s going to start in what will be his final year of eligibility in 2025.

Still, he’s got more experience than anyone else in the room and was on campus in the spring to get a jump start on learning Shurmur’s offense, which would likely look a lot different than it did in 2024 should Salter win the starting job.

A three-year starter for the Flames, Salter’s best season came in 2023, when he helped Liberty to a 13-0 record in the regular season and an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl against Oregon (a 45-6 loss to the Ducks).

Salter threw for nearly 2,900 yards and 32 touchdowns on 61% completions, while adding in over 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground. Simply put, he was one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in the country for that season.

Now, his production dropped off in 2024 as he finished with under 1,900 passing yards and under 600 rushing yards to go with just 22 total touchdowns. But there should still be plenty of confidence that the player we saw in 2023 (both the passer and the runner) is still in there and could help the Buffs contend for a Big 12 title this fall.

The five-star freshman

Any other player with Julian “JuJu” Lewis’ high school profile would likely be considered a guaranteed day one starter in college.

For three seasons at the top level of Georgia high school football, Lewis was as good as it gets. The five-star recruit went 39-4 with one state championship victory as a freshman. His 11,010 passing yards and 144 touchdowns rank seventh and fifth all-time in the state’s history, despite only playing three seasons.

There’s just one thing different about him: he should still be in high school. While previously committed to USC, Lewis reclassified to the 2025 recruiting class. After signing with CU in December, he graduated a year and a half early to enroll for the spring semester this past January.

He will be 17 for nearly the first full month of the season and is the highest-rated player ever on the ESPN 300 list (which began in 2006) to sign with the Buffs out of high school.

Will he be ready, both mentally and physically, to play Power conference football before turning 18? That’s the big question the Buffs have to answer this summer as the battle between him and Salter continues into August. It feels like it would be a surprise to see Lewis open the season as the starter, but it would be equally as surprising to not see him at all sometime this fall.

The poise and maturity (and arm talent) he has already displayed since arriving at CU has people comparing him to Shedeur already.

The dark horse

There is one name that can’t be discounted this summer: Ryan Staub.

He is the longest-tenured scholarship player in the quarterback room and has spent the last two years backing up Sanders and learning from Shurmur, who has consistently said good things about Staub. He’s made just one start during his college career to date — the season finale against Utah in 2023 — but knows the offense better than anyone else on the roster and has the traits of a reliable quarterback who could provide a real floor to the offense’s success.

Still, it’s hard to imagine him being the guy who starts the season opener against Georgia Tech on Aug. 29 given the upsides of Salter and Lewis.

The other two quarterbacks who round out the room are walk-ons Colton Allen, a Valor Christian grad who has been with the Buffs since 2022, and Dominq Ponder.