Sunday Dawg Chow (6/1): Salary loopholes, QB chatter, roster rankings, and more!

The latest Cleveland Browns news and notes from around the NFL in the Sunday Dawg Chow.

The Cleveland Browns will continue their offseason program with the second week of OTAs on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of this week.

That means we can all look forward to another round of quarterback evaluations, tea leaf readings, and possibly a call to a fortune teller as media and fans alike look to put meaning to the order that quarterbacks Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders take snaps over the three days of work in helmet and shorts.

But until we get there, let’s celebrate the first day of June with the latest news about the Cleveland Browns and the NFL in today’s edition of the Sunday Dawg Chow.

Dawgs By Nature:

• Browns GM Andrew Berry among those using loopholes the NFL might want to close (Barry Shuck) - The word “loophole” is derived from thin slits that were built throughout the stone walls of castles. The openings provided enough space for an archer to shoot arrows out of without being hit by the castle’s attackers. The top of the opening was a long narrow slit for vision while the bottom had a round hole for the arrows, called a loop which means “to encircle.” The context of the word today means “to take advantage of something already there.”
• Browns QB update from OTAs: ‘Dillon Gabriel does not look like an NFL quarterback to me’ (Jared Mueller) - The fate of the 2025 Cleveland Browns season rides mostly on the team’s defense and their attempt to rejuvenate the rushing attack. Despite that, the Browns quarterback competition will be the biggest storyline, especially given the lack of play style continuity among the four quarterbacks competing for the job.
• PFF gives an ugly grade to the Browns roster (Damon Wolfe) - Pro Football Focus has entered the rankings chat early by passing out roster rankings for all 32 teams, and their opinion of the Cleveland Browns’ roster was surprisingly bad.
• Could the Browns overachieve this upcoming season? It’s possible (Curtiss Brown) - Going into the 2025 season, the Cleveland Browns are filled with unknowns. However, if you have seen how the NFL is, there is at least one team that overachieves. Why not Cleveland?

Cleveland Browns:

• Will Shedeur Sanders emerge at QB in new-look Browns offense? (ESPN) - After a 2024 season in which the Cleveland Browns’ offense ranked last in scoring and shuffled through four different starting quarterbacks, the unit has been vastly reshaped in the past several months.
• Steelers starter or Eagles backup, Kenny Pickett using experience in Browns QB competition (Beacon Journal) - The experience Kenny Pickett gained during his two years of essentially being the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting quarterback was invaluable.
• Watch Browns rookie quarterbacks battle it out in the kitchen instead of on the field at ‘Rooks to Cooks’ (cleveland.com) - Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and the other Browns rookies have...