NFL Trade Rumors
There might not be a quarterback room that carries more intrigue for the upcoming season than the Browns. There’s an unusual amount of interest but that’s because Cleveland has taken an unusual approach to building out a room that includes veteran Joe Flacco, former first-rounder Kenny Pickett, third-round rookie Dillon Gabriel and fifth-rounder Shedeur Sanders.
That’s quite the cast of names and characters who will be competing for the starting job. Flacco is a fan favorite who came off the couch to help the Browns to a playoff appearance in 2023. Pickett started his career with the division-rival Steelers. And then of course there’s Sanders, one of the most polarizing prospects to enter the league in some time — who wasn’t even the first rookie passer selected by the organization. The group has the public fascinated, as evidenced by the detailed OTAs passing stats charted by the local ESPN radio station.
Here are the QB totals from the 5 Browns open media practices (OTAs and minicamp) this spring.
Who do you think should be the Browns QB1? pic.twitter.com/daBfqHvn58
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) June 12, 2025
The four are competing for more than just the starting job, however. Generally teams will carry just three quarterbacks on the final 53-man roster in the regular season. Some don’t even like rostering more than two. Barring injuries that thin the herd, basic math and logic suggest one of the Browns’ quarterbacks is going to end up on a different team, which is why there’s been no shortage of trade speculation surrounding this quartet — some of it informed, some of it less so. Browns GM Andrew Berry has claimed he’s willing to keep four quarterbacks on the roster. That could easily be posturing for negotiations but Berry also has enough of an unconventional track record to not discount his word completely.
Ultimately, how each quarterback performs in training camp and the preseason is going to have far more of an impact on how this shakes out than their completion percentage in May drills. But what would it look like if we tried to take our best guess at what the Browns’ quarterback depth chart will look like in September?
To understand the Browns’ unorthodox approach at the quarterback position, we have to go back to the infamous trade for QB Deshaun Watson. Their current circumstances are directly downstream from that disaster. Watson is still on the roster but is rehabbing an Achilles tendon he tore twice in the span of a few months. It does not appear as if he factors into the team’s on-field plans this year, and owner Jimmy Haslam openly admitted the trade was a flop earlier this offseason. The likely outcome is Watson spending the season on injured reserve and getting cut with a June 1 designation next offseason, though it will be interesting to see if he recovers well enough to try and throw a wrench...
