The Cleveland Browns shocked the NFL world on Tuesday when they surprisingly traded quarterback Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals.
With Flacco now gone, the team’s unquestioned Q1 is rookie Dillon Gabriel, who completed 19 of 30 passes for 190 yards and two touchdowns in his NFL debut against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Flacco signed a one-year, $4.25 million deal with the Cleveland Browns during the offseason. He won the starting job out of camp but he was eventually benched after a rough first four games. Flacco went 93 of 160 for 815 yards, two touchdowns and six interceptions before he was benched.
Of course, of all the quarterbacks on the Browns’ roster, the most-talked about one is rookie fifth-rounder Shedeur Sanders. The Brown drafted Sanders with the 144th overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft, which turned into the story of the event considering Sanders was expected to go in the first round.
After the news of Flacco’s trade broke, those in the NFL speculated that Sanders would become the team’s QB2, and now, that’s official - at least for the moment.
The Browns posted a new depth chart after the Flacco trade, and it has Sanders as Gabriel’s backup. Behind Sanders in the No. 3 spot is Deshaun Watson.
While not a huge surprise, the move is still significant because it’s the first time this season Sanders has appeared higher than the No. 3 emergency spot. Another quarterback that the team is hanging onto is Bailey Zappe, who is on Cleveland’s practice squad.
According to Browns insider Zac Jackson of The Athletic, team isn’t ruling out the idea of signing Zappe to the active roster, where he would likely compete with Sanders for the backup job behind Gabriel.
Read more: Ex-NFL Coach Says What Everyone’s Thinking About Browns’ Shedeur Sanders
“Flacco, 40, was no longer in their plans,” Jackson stated immediately after the trade. “Cleveland will likely promote Bailey Zappe from their practice squad, and we’ll see later in the week if rookie Shedeur Sanders will move up from emergency quarterback and third on the depth chart or if Zappe will become the primary backup.”
Jackson added on X: “The obvious next move for the Browns will be…Bailey Zappe to the active roster.”
While Zappe jumping to the No. 2 job is possible, for now Sanders seems to be the team’s second option behind Gabriel. Head coach Kevin Stefanski has previously said that the two are working well together.
“All of our players, and I include Shedeur in this, are working extremely hard,” he said. “We just finished our period after practice that we do every single day, just finished a red zone 7-on-7 period where Shedeur and the rest of the younger guys are working on 10 reps. So, he needs to continue to do exactly what he’s been doing. And continue to do what all these guys are doing, which is just keep working.”
Time will tell if Sanders takes the field soon with the Browns, but with the Flacco trade, that possibility is getting more real.
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