“Y'all trying to set Shedeur Sanders up for failure”: Emmanuel Acho fires back at Damian Lillard's take of Raiders trading for Deion Sanders’ son

Shedeur Sanders was promoted to the second quarterback on the Cleveland Browns' depth chart on Tuesday after Joe Flacco was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals. Dillon Gabriel took over from Flacco in Week 5 and had a solid debut against the Minnesota Vikings, paving the way for him to start in future games.

However, many believe Sanders should be a starter in the league, even if it is not for the Browns. One of these is Damian Lillard, who called on the Las Vegas Raiders to trade for Sanders amid Geno Smith's struggles this season.

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Emmanuel Acho, on the other hand, holds a different view. Acho does not believe that Shedeur can be successful with the Raiders in their current state.

"The Raiders had the Browns quarterback they wanted to pick, and they picked Pickett," he said on the "Speakeasy" podcast (Timestamp: 50:50)."Two things happened. Tom Brady had the opportunity to draft Shedeur and he didn't. He had the opportunity to trade for Shedeur and he didn't. This is nonsense. You want to put Shedeur behind that poor offensive line, and a depleted roster, and a young Ashton Jeanty, and hope that he does what? Y'all trying to set Shedeur up for failure."

Raiders passed on Shedeur Sanders seven times during the 2025 draft

The idea of Las Vegas sending a draft pick to Cleveland for the young quarterback might be far-fetched, given they picked seven different players in the draft before Shedeur went to the Browns. The Raiders needed a quarterback, but apparently did not believe in Sanders' potential.

There's no reason to believe this has changed since the draft as Sanders has not played a single NFL snap. The Raiders also traded for Browns quarterback Kenny Pickett before the season.

About the author

Henrique Bulio is an NFL and College Football journalist at Sportskeeda and the Editor-in-Chief of Pro Football Brasil. He has a total 13 years of experience working in American Football, and playing quarterback at an amateur level in Brazil has given him a unique perspective of the game.

Henrique follows the Philadelphia Eagles closely due to Michael Vick's historic performance on MNF against the Washington Commanders in 2010. His all-time favorite player is Ed Reed; he believes that Reed is the greatest safety to ever play the game. Bill Belichick gets the nod as Henrique's favorite coach for coaching the Patriots to glory over two decades.

If Henrique were to be able to go back in time and watch one game, it would be Super Bowl XLIX, where the Patriots and the Seahawks played a complete, back-and-forth game that concluded with one of the biggest talking points in NFL history.

Technical deep dives are Henrique’s specialty, and he ensures never to use misleading words in his articles, since he himself consumes a lot of information off the web. He has had the privilege of interviewing Cairo Santos, Lamar Jackson, Jim Harbaugh, Sean McDermott, Bruce Arians, Matt LaFleur, among others.

Aside from football, Henrique likes to play poker and Counter-Strike.

Know More

Cleveland Browns Nation! Check out the latest Cleveland Browns Schedule and dive into the Browns Depth Chart for NFL Season 2024-25.

Edited by Henrique Bulio