CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Browns traded for Kenny Pickett in March hoping they might catch some Sam Darnold, Geno Smith or Baker Mayfield lightning in a bottle - a high draft pick who needed a second or third chance to hit his stride.
But first he’ll have to beat out Joe Flacco, who has a big head start in the sweepstakes from his magical stint here in 2023, and who will dazzle all spring and summer with his cannon arm and built-in chemistry.
Pickett, turning 27 on Friday, heads into the four-way competition with Flacco, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders as the early frontrunner to win the job, based in part on the Browns’ targeting him right out of the gate in March, and their effusive praise of him since then.
Designs on him as their possible QB1 were evident during organized team activities last week, where he went first in offensive-only drills, and the second set the second set of 11-on-11s, with Flacco getting the nod in the first set of team drills.
But Flacco - now 40 - won’t make it easy for Pickett, the No. 20 overall pick of the Steelers in 2022, to keep him off the field on opening day against the Bengals. For starters, he’ll aim to pick back up on his 4-1 run to the playoffs here in 2023, one filled with 300-yard, 3-TD games and heat-seeking missiles to Amari Cooper. He took to Stefanski’s version of the West Coast offense, handed down from Gary Kubiak and others, like he had been studying the playbook during those 10 weeks on the couch that year.
The game is playing on half-speed for Flacco, heading into his 18th season, and there’s nothing he hasn’t seen.
On the first play of 11-on-11s on Wednesday, Flacco evoked memories of the Flacco-to-Cooper Express by connecting with Jerry Jeudy deep down the left side, the ball landing like a pillow. The quickest way to Stefanski’s heart will be to light up Jeudy, Cedric Tillman, David Njoku and Harold Fannin Jr. A team that scored an embarrassing league-low 15.2 points per game last season must prioritize scoring touchdowns, and Flacco certainly had a knack for that last time around.
In fact, in his five starts for the Browns that year — albeit not against the NFL’s defensive juggernauts — Flacco threw 13 touchdown passes, including a trio of games with three. For comparison’s sake, Pickett threw 13 touchdown passes -- in his 24 starts in Pittsburgh. That includes only six in his 12 starts in 2023, and one in his final seven.
In Pickett’s defense, he played for embattled offensive coordinator Matt Canada, who was fired 10 games into the 2023 season after a 13-10 loss to the Browns in which the Steelers managed 77 yards passing. At that point, they were 31st in passing yards and 28th in points per game. What’s more, Pickett had two mercurial receivers in George Pickers and Diontae Johnson, whom the Steelers traded in each of the past two seasons. Johnson landed in Cleveland this offseason after three teams gave up on him last year, and the Browns are hoping for a better version.
Pickett, having undergone tightrope surgery on his high ankle sprain in early December, sat out the wild card playoff game that year in favor of Mason Rudolph, and his two seasons in Pittsburgh were up. When they committed to Russell Wilson as their starter for last season, Pickett wanted out, and they traded him to the Eagles.
It was in that lone season with the eventual Super Bowl champs that Pickett realized just how dysfunctional his two years under Canada were, and what success looked like. In addition to working alongside Jalen Hurts, he was coached by premier offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, hired after the season as Saints head coach. When he got in games late in the season in place of a concussed Hurts, everything made sense.
“I’m extremely grateful for my time in Philly,” Pickett said Wednesday. “I think I was shown how it’s supposed to be done really from the top down. So when you get a chance to see what it’s supposed to look like and how it should look on a day-to-day basis, not just on Sundays, I think it’ll pay dividends for me in the future.”
Fortunately for Pickett, who engineered three fourth-quarter comebacks as a rookie, there’s enough crossover here with Philly that he’s acclimating quickly.
“Philly was more in the gun, but a lot of the concepts are the same and the teaching is the same,” he said. “Just learning the new terminology has really been the big thing for me.”
He acknowledged, however, that mastering a new scheme takes time.
“Continuing to work in the pocket’s been really good for me,” he said. “Having a chance in Philly to do it and now working with the coaches here, I’m continuing to get better there. It felt like late in games, I found ways to win games, which was always good to see, but you have to be in a system for a couple years to really grow. I’m hoping I can have that here.”
In Philly, Pickett became expendable when their 2023 sixth-round pick Tanner McKee showed excellent promise in two appearances late in the season. Replacing Pickett late in a 41-7 victory over the Cowboys in Week 17, McKee attempted only three passes, but two went for TDs. It earned him the nod the next week vs. the Giants, where he threw two more TDs to earn his first career victory. The promising start was enough to convince the Eagles to trade Pickett to the Browns in March for Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a fifth-round pick.
It also meant that Pickett’s previous two seasons ended with him on the bench and getting traded. But the Browns saw something special in him and hope they can coax it out of him.
“That’s awesome,” Pickett said. “That’s why I’m just taking a day at a time and working really hard. We’ll see where the chips fall.”
While Pickett is memorizing the terminology and honing his pocket presence, Flacco will be busy turning Jeudy into his mini-Cooper, and picking back up where he left off with Njoku. He knows the offensive linemen, the wide-zone blocking scheme and how Stefanski wants things done. He’ll also draw plenty of oohs and aahs in camp with the eye-popping explosive plays.
But he also throws too many interceptions and that could cost him the job. It’s where Pickett can get a leg up in the competition, even if Flacco has the edge in scheme-nuance and chunk-play prowess. Granted, Flacco has 14 seasons, one Super Bowl MVP and 242 touchdowns on Pickett. But Pickett has captured the fancy of the Browns, and if he can play clean ball and get back to some of those fourth-quarter comebacks, he’ll have a chance to join the revived-QBs club.
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