Since rookie minicamp itself, Shedeur Sanders has been turning heads in Cleveland, and that momentum has carried into OTAs. His ball placement has been labeled elite. Then, in a recent outing, he completed 9 of 14 passes and threw three touchdowns.
Advertisement
Shedeur’s performance on the field matches exactly what the majority of NFL analysts predicted a few months ago. That is, until those same analysts (including us) watched in stunned silence during the 2025 NFL Draft as this talented QB slipped all the way to the fifth round.
However, now that Shedeur is balling out in OTAs, he should be the favorite for the starting job, right? Wrong… He’s still receiving limited first-team reps in practice. And naturally, analysts like Emmanuel Acho remain skeptical about where this could lead.
On an episode of The Facility, the former linebacker highlighted two major reasons why Shedeur could still be overlooked as the QB1 when September rolls around. One of them being politics.
“Even if Shedeur is the most talented quarterback, it might be politics that keep him from starting week 1. What might those politics be?” Acho began.
“Hey, we’ve invested $4 million in Joe Flacco — politics number 1. Hey, we’ve traded for Kenny Pickett — politics number 2. Hey, we drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Shedeur in the fifth round — politics number 3.”
Acho himself witnessed this type of politics during his NFL stint in Philadelphia. As he recalled, before the 2014 season, he was demoted to the practice squad as a third-string linebacker. However, after Mychal Kendricks suffered an injury in Week 2 (which Acho mistakenly remembered as Week 1) and missed a few weeks of field time, Acho was elevated to starter.
Acho was originally supposed to be a backup after the promotion, though. The former LB believes it was politics that helped him become the starter.
The second reason why Shedeur might be overlooked for the starting job? Posturing. Acho brought up how Titans HC Brian Callahan had plenty of praise for Shedeur during the draft scouting process — but did they go through with the selection? No.
Mike Tomlin also sang his praises, but the Steelers didn’t pick him either, despite being a QB-needy team. Even Jerry Jones claimed he had evaluated Shedeur “extremely high” in this draft. But we all know how that turned out.
.@EmmanuelAcho says there’s 2 things that could keep Shedeur Sanders from starting:
Politics & Posturing pic.twitter.com/PFBcY0zhs5
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) June 5, 2025
At this point, it’s quite strange how the Shedeur drama continues to drag on. His father even caught flak for speaking out about the draft slide, weeks after it happened. Suddenly, it’s considered a problem to talk about your son experiencing one of the most unprecedented falls in league history.
And it could very likely get even worse for Shedeur. There’s still a significant chance he gets cut before the season. As Acho puts it, “It’s hard to take this seriously when I know that politics exists in the NFL and posturing exists in the NFL.”
