A report from the first week of June suggested that there's "a path" for rookie Shedeur Sanders to win the Cleveland Browns' starting quarterback job over fellow first-year pro Dillon Gabriel, veteran Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett.
For a mailbag published on Sunday, Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explained why she still believes Flacco or Pickett will enter September as the team's QB1 even though Sanders produced some impressive performances during springtime workouts.
"I keep thinking that the Browns will end up starting a veteran because of the grueling early part of the schedule, and because they have such a veteran roster counting on winning games this season," Cabot wrote. "I know the Browns see tremendous upside in Kenny Pickett and believe he can win. But I think Flacco will make it difficult because of his head start in this scheme and with this personnel. He’s a natural in Kevin Stefanski’s offense, but Pickett is coming up the learning curve quickly. I think it will come down to who can light it up the best with the top pass-catchers such as (wide receiver) Jerry Jeudy and (tight end) David Njoku, while also protecting the ball and avoiding interceptions."
The Browns open the upcoming campaign with a home game against a Cincinnati Bengals side that has 2024 regular-season Most Valuable Player Award finalist Joe Burrow as its starting quarterback. In Week 2, Cleveland will play at a Baltimore Ravens team that's coming off a 12-5 season.
Veteran players such as guard Joel Bitonio and pass-rusher Myles Garrett didn't decide to continue playing for the Browns just for the club to essentially "tank" the 2025 season. Both were with the club during the 2023 campaign when Flacco guided Cleveland to four wins over five contests and to a playoff berth. Flacco is the only active quarterback with the Browns who has in-game experience playing under head coach Kevin Stefanski.
As of Monday morning, FanDuel Sportsbook continued to list Flacco as the betting favorite at +116 odds to be Cleveland's Week 1 starter. Pickett was second on the list at +230 odds, followed by Sanders at +310 on Monday.
"Sanders, who hasn’t had as much thrown at him yet as Pickett and Gabriel and is running primarily with the fourth team, has done a nice job with the reps he’s been given, but has a long way to go," Cabot added for an article posted on Monday. "In the two (organized team activities practices) open to the media, he participated in only one of four 11-on-11 periods and didn’t get any first-team snaps. He’s completed plenty of passes and thrown a lot of TDs, but minicamp will be a different animal."
The Browns' mandatory minicamp is scheduled to run from Tuesday through Thursday. It remains to be seen if Sanders can do anything over those sessions to rise up the depth chart amid calls from some fans for Stefanski to play the polarizing prospect as soon as on Sept. 7 versus Cincinnati.
