A recent story indicated that veteran Cleveland Browns players, such as starting left guard Joel Bitonio, wouldn't tolerate the club using the 2025 season to evaluate rookie quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel.
While speaking at the annual Cleveland Browns Foundation golf outing on Monday, Bitonio addressed the ongoing competition for the team's starting quarterback job that also features veteran Joe Flacco and 2022 first-round draft choice Kenny Pickett.
"We want the best guy to compete," Bitonio directly said, as shared by Jeff Schudel of The News-Herald. "You understand that the team has a duty for future years, but I think going into the season, we’re going to put the best guys out there and we’re going to try and win as many games as we can."
Multiple Browns reporters have said throughout organized team activities that either Flacco or Pickett will begin the season as Cleveland's starter, barring an unexpected development. Throughout the spring, FanDuel Sportsbook has listed Flacco as the betting favorite at +116 odds to win the job. Flacco played under head coach Kevin Stefanski when they guided the 2023 Browns to a playoff berth, while Pickett has never taken a meaningful snap in Stefanski's offense.
"I already had a relationship with Joe Flacco," Bitonio said on Monday, per Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland/The Land on Demand. "We bring him back. Kenny Pickett, from every day I've talked to and been around…he’s just a guy that wants his chance, and he's hungry to prove that he can play in this league. Then you draft two young quarterbacks. So I think the quarterback room, we have four guys that are going to compete that, like I said, we want to put the best guy out there."
Bitonio insisted that the team plans to "try and win some games this year" rather than see if either Sanders or Gabriel can convince the Browns front office that it doesn't need to draft a top-tier quarterback prospect in 2026. That said, Max Chadwick and Dalton Wasserman of Pro Football Focus recently ranked Cleveland's possible starting lineup as the league's worst for the upcoming season.
If such projections prove to be accurate, both Stefanski and Browns general manager Andrew Berry could understandably face pressure to sit Flacco by the end of September. The 40-year-old isn't a long-term answer for any club at this stage of his career, and the Browns should eventually want to see what Pickett, Sanders and Gabriel can do against live defenses if it becomes clear the team is headed toward a second straight losing campaign.
