While the Browns reportedly intend to hold a four-player quarterback competition, they won’t see even reps, HC Kevin Stefanski says. According to Mary Cay Kabot of Cleveland.com, the Browns want to have a competition “as fair and efficient as possible”. But that fairness and efficiency doesn’t, apparently, mean equitability of opportunity.
Not that it should, because the Browns have a group of quarterbacks in wildly different places in their careers. Of the four in question, three are new to the team entirely. Two are rookie draft picks, while the other two have been NFL starters in the past. One of those starters is greatly experienced and near the end of his career. The other starter is only in his fourth season and had his ups and downs.
“The big thing for us is making sure we give the guys enough reps that they need”, Browns HC Kevin Stefanski said, according to Josh Alper for Pro Football Talk. “They’re learning the system, they’re developing and we’re evaluating them. We’re finding out about them. It’s not going to be everybody gets 25 percent of the reps, that’s not how it’s gonna be. We want to give everybody enough reps where we can learn more about them and prepare them to get ready to play”.
After the Browns’ monumental swing and miss on Deshaun Watson, they are scrambling for answers. This offseason, they traded for former first-round pick Kenny Pickett, re-signed Joe Flacco, and then drafted Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders in the third and fifth rounds, respectively.
While Watson is making progress in his rehab, he won’t be a factor for, at best, another few months. Even without Watson, the Browns already have too many quarterbacks for a typical 53-man roster. And trying to find adequate reps—never mind equitable—for four quarterbacks in the offseason is hard enough.
Like the Steelers, the Browns open OTAs on Tuesday, and will unveil this quarterback competition. Reportedly, they intend to hold, essentially, two separate, simultaneous practices, two quarterbacks apiece. To that end, they have stockpiled wide receivers this offseason in the hopes of having enough to work with.
The reported goal, which is reasonable enough, is for the Browns to identify as quickly as possible who their best option will be for a starting quarterback. At the moment, we probably can’t rule out anybody, though a veteran feels more likely. Some believe Kenny Pickett is the favorite going in, while others believe it’s Flacco.
Naturally, there will be a contingent for Shedeur Sanders, who many believed would be a first-round pick. Needless to say, had he not dropped all the way to the fifth round, the Browns never would have drafted him. After all, they already drafted Dillon Gabriel before they circled back to him.
Presumably, the Browns will pair one rookie with one veteran and go from there. How they distribute reps, and with what teammates, remains to be seen. There is no calculus to figure it out in advance, and will have to be adjusted as necessary during practice.
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