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

Shedeur Sanders was promoted to No. 2 quarterback for the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday, but by no virtue of his own. Joe Flacco, the starter in Week 1, was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals after Dillon Gabriel took over the starting spot.

Gabriel had a solid debut against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 5. At worst, this should give him a few weeks to prove himself as the starter for the Browns. However, NFL fans are still adamant that Sanders should be a starter in the league, despite his heavy fall in the draft.

One of these fans is Damian Lillard. The basketball player made a series of tweets asking for the Las Vegas Raiders to go ahead and trade for Shedeur. In his view, acquiring the former Colorado passer would be the way to prepare for the future:

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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. In his view, everyone who wants him to go to Las Vegas is "setting him up for failure"

[50:50] "The Raiders had the Browns quarterback they wanted to pick, and they picked Pickett. 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 for failure."

Raiders skipped Shedeur Sanders seven times during the 2025 draft

The idea of Las Vegas sending a draft pick to Cleveland for the young quarterback is ludicrous. After all, they picked seven different players before Shedeur was off the board to the Browns. The need for a young quarterback was clear; this was a sign that the Raiders do not believe in Sanders.

There's no reason to believe this has changed since the draft. He has not played a single NFL snap despite fans and analysts calling for him to start. The Raiders also traded for Browns quarterback Kenny Pickett before the season.

Edited by Henrique Bulio