BEREA -- There are many questions surrounding the Cleveland Browns quarterback position. At the top of the list is who will be the starting quarterback when the Browns start the 2025 regular season? Another question is how many quarterbacks will the Browns keep on the active roster? Will they trade one of the quarterbacks and if so, who? Will they cut one, if so, who? Could they keep all four?
The rest of the AFC North is settled at the position, after Aaron Rodgers finally signed with the Steelers. While there is an argument that the Ravens, Bengals and Steelers all have future Hall of Fame quarterbacks or close to the equivalent with the trajectory of Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, the Browns are sitting with four quarterbacks and trying to sort through the process to find a starter.
Joe Flacco (Photo: Getty, 247Sports)
The Browns have Joe Flacco, a 40-year old, looking for maybe one last chance to be a starting quarterback, a former first-round pick in Kenny Pickett, looking to resurrect his NFL career and two rookies, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, taken in the third- and fifth-rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft, respectively.
Kevin Stefanski declared an open competition after the draft and the quarterbacks have been rotated and the Browns used 'two-spot' situations in the OTAs and mandatory minicamp to double the opportunities in passing for the four quarterbacks.
Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees was asked about the quarterbacks and where the competition stood before the mandatory minicamp.
"You can see them all winning the job," Rees said. "…In terms of the competition, we're so early in the process. We're so early in evaluating that … We have a good group of guys that continue to push one another, and by the time September rolls around, we'll be ready to go."
Stefanski said the Browns have gained a lot of information about each of the quarterbacks in the process so far.
"We've learned a lot," Stefanski said. "The big thing is, this is an all-encompassing evaluation. We were evaluating the guys during phase one, during phase two and now, finally, phase three, you get to go against your defense in some settings where our quarterbacks and our offense get to go against them in seven-on-seven and some team drills. So all of that adds up to reps for us to look at and it's not just looking at the result of a play. We're looking really at everything with these guys."