Dawgs By Nature
The Cleveland Browns take a major step forward in the quarterback competition this week.
Following two days of joint practices with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Browns and Eagles will meet Saturday afternoon for a preseason game at Lincoln Financial Field.
Barring any injuries or other setbacks, at some point, possibly as early as next week, head coach Kevin Stefanski will announce that Joe Flacco will open the season as the starting quarterback. That has been as close to a lock as you can find in the NFL, given that Flacco knows Stefanski’s offense, and his competition is a pair of rookies who are not ready and Kenny Pickett.
How the rest of the room shakes out behind Flacco is still a bit open, but it should surprise no one if the initial 53-man roster has Shedeur Sanders as the backup, Dillon Gabriel as the developmental third quarterback, and Pickett plying his trade elsewhere after general manager Andrew Berry moves him for a conditional draft pick.
Even though the plan appears to be coming together, there are still legitimate questions about how much the Browns can rebound from a 2024 season that saw some of the historically worst quarterback play in NFL history:
We’ll start knowing the answers once the season kicks off against the Cincinnati Bengals, but if you go by The Athletic’s annual NFL QB Tiers ranking system, it is still going to be a rough season.
For those not familiar, The Athletic polls a panel of 50 NFL coaches and executives, who are granted anonymity, to share their evaluations of the league’s quarterbacks. The panel comprised six general managers, six assistant GMs, six former GMs, five other executives, eight head coaches and 19 other coaches, including 15 coordinators.
Each voter places 34 veteran quarterbacks into five tiers, from Tier 1 (Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and others) down to Tier 5 (more on the lone quarterback in this group in a minute).
So, how does this relate to the Browns?
Flacco, who hasn’t been included in the rankings, makes his less-than-triumphant return at No. 31 in Tier 4, which includes unproven players or a veteran who should not be starting a full season:
Flacco is making his first QB Tiers appearance since 2021. Voters are slightly higher on him now, at age 40, than they were back then, at 36.”He’s still playing?” a defensive coordinator asked.
Flacco is the favorite to start in Week 1, with Kenny Pickett limited by a hamstring injury and the two rookie draft choices, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, working in the background.
“I respect him, particularly...
