Pro Football Rumors
The quarterbacks room in Cleveland is currently a bit overcrowded as four new faces vie for the starting job vacated by an injured Deshaun Watson. Veterans Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco seem to be in the lead for the starting gig, but each are on only a one-year deal, and there’s a chance only the winner may get to stay on the roster. Rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders both hold promise, but they’re likely competing for backup roles at the moment.
Perhaps, after the 2025 NFL season, Watson will be back to full health, and the team will hold on to him so he can play out the final year of his historically terrible contract. Or maybe the team will re-sign the veteran who wins the starting job to a second deal. There’s also a chance that one of Gabriel or Sanders develops into a starter and becomes the quarterback of the future. ESPN’s Tony Grossi has a different idea in mind, though.
In a recent Q&A for TheLandOnDemand.com, Grossi posited the possibility that the Browns could dip back in the 2026 NFL Draft for a new quarterback. On its surface, the claim seems ridiculous after watching Cleveland selected two rookie quarterbacks in this year’s draft, but Grossi makes some compelling arguments.
First, he points to the draft compensation received from Jacksonville in return for the rights to draft Travis Hunter with the No. 2 overall draft pick. In that trade, the Browns got some valuable 2025 pick swaps, but the big kicker was Jacksonville’s 2026 first-round pick, giving Cleveland two Day 1 picks next year. Seeing as both teams combined for seven wins last season, there’s a decent chance both picks could be fairly high, though each team will obviously be hoping for improvement.
The second point he brings up is the fact that the quarterbacks in the 2025 draft were widely seen as an overall lackluster group with only No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward being viewed as a player who would’ve been among 2024’s first-round passers in talent. In contrast, the class of 2026 is widely expected to be a much more talented group of passers for quarterback-needy teams.
We’ve covered this a bit already with our early look into the class’s quarterbacks shortly following the draft. A lot of eyes are on Texas’ Arch Manning, but even if he stays in school for another year, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Miami’s Carson Beck, and several others all give the draft class a chance to provide a much stronger group of passing prospects than we saw this past year.
So, if the 2026 class produces a litany of talented passing options that the team rates higher than it did Gabriel and Sanders, and the Browns hold two first-round picks, it certainly doesn’t seem impossible to think that Cleveland might use one of those two picks to take a flyer on...
