Versatile Sanders Shifts Focus From Running Bases To Running Routes

The Dallas Cowboys found out one thing in their week-long minicamp and quarterback school: Deion Sanders is a better receiver than baseball player.

This is the first spring Sanders hasn’t played baseball. He has devoted time to business deals, playing with his children and learning to run routes as a receiver.

He’s been successful at all three.

“He’s like the road runner, beep-beep varooooom,” said Dallas coach Barry Switzer. “His route running is much advanced from where it was last fall when we put him in there on a part-time basis.”

Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman cautioned to not put Sanders in the class of Michael Irvin or even Kevin Williams - yet.

“He has the ability to be one of the great wide receivers for our team,” Aikman said. “But he hasn’t mastered the position yet. It’s still going to be hard for him to play both defense and offense.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see how much we use him on offense,” Switzer said.

“We need him for sure on defense.”