On Monday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated seemed to pour cold water over previous takes about the Cleveland Browns' quarterback situation.
He suggested that veteran Joe Flacco will enter the summer as the leader of a competition for the Week 1 starting job that also features Kenny Pickett, 2025 third-round draft pick Dillon Gabriel and 2025 fifth-round choice Shedeur Sanders.
Later in the day, Dan Labbe of the Cleveland Plain Dealer offered more information on how the signal-callers performed during the Browns' mandatory minicamp last week.
"Flacco is a pro and looked it," Labbe wrote. "Unless the Browns are so scarred from last season that they can’t handle Flacco’s penchant for turnovers, he’s going to look impressive in camp and make a real push. Much of this is based on preconceived notions, but the most interesting outcome to me is Flacco starting the season and Sanders taking over later."
Many Cleveland fans have fond memories of how the combination of Flacco and head coach Kevin Stefanski notched four wins over five games to guide the 2023 Browns to a playoff berth. That said, many of those same supporters likely weren't watching the Indianapolis Colts last fall when Flacco threw four interceptions, lost two fumbles and took seven sacks in back-to-back starts that he lost.
While one could say the 40-year-old Flacco looked past his prime over those Indianapolis outings, Breer is among reporters who think the one-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award winner is "in pole position" to be named Cleveland's starter for the regular-season opener versus the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 7.
For a piece posted on Tuesday, Ashley Bastock of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote that "Flacco clearly has the best understanding of this offense" and that one could "see flashes of what he did in 2023" during springtime workouts.
On the latest edition of the "Orange and Brown Talk Podcast," Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer repeated what others previously said when she mentioned that the club is prepared to hold onto all four quarterbacks "for either much or all of the season." In theory, such a plan would allow the Browns to potentially get looks at the younger signal-callers later this year if Flacco flops across the opening month of the 2025 campaign as Cleveland's QB1.
