CLEVELAND, Ohio — With rumors swirling that the Browns will trade Kenny Pickett or waive Shedeur Sanders, the Browns have never wavered in their plan to keep all four QBs.
That means that Joe Flacco, Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders will all still be on the 53-man roster when the cuts are made Tuesday by 4 p.m.
Before the draft, when the Browns targeted Gabriel in the third round, they planned to keep three: Flacco, Pickett and Gabriel, and when Sanders was too good to pass up a seventh time in the fifth round, he joined the club and will also have spot on the team.
Unless someone makes an offer the Browns can’t refuse by Tuesday’s deadline, they’ll head into the season with their two veteran QBs, and their two developmental rookies.
Flacco, 40, has already been named the Week 1 starter, but the situation is fluid. If he performs well and wins, he’ll keep the job. If not, Pickett will be ready to step in and pick up where he left off when he suffered his hamstring injury on July 26.
The tentative plan was always for Pickett for start — it’s why the Browns jumped at the chance to acquire him in a trade with the Eagles in March while taking their time signing Flacco — and he’s still shown excellent progress despite the hamstring injury. He returned to some 11-on-11s on Tuesday, but then bowed back out on Wednesday and Thursday so Kevin Stefanski could get reps for the QBs who will face the Rams in the preseason finale today.
Pickett will sit this one out with his hamstring, while Flacco will start the game, Gabriel will play second, and Sanders will play third. If time permits, Tyler Huntley might also get some snaps. The starters will play about 20-25 snaps in the “dress rehearsal” game, even though Sean McVay plans to rest most of his starters.
The Browns have used nine starting quarterbacks over the past two seasons, and know the importance of keeping two quality veterans on the roster. That point was driven home in 2023 when they had to sign Flacco off the couch to save them down the stretch.
In addition to keeping Flacco and Pickett to handle the grueling early part of the season, including 5 of 6 on the road, they’ve determined that Gabriel and Sanders are both worth keeping and developing. What’s more, both will likely get a chance to play in the second half of the season to help inform the Browns draft plans for 2026. They have two first-round picks, their own and the Jaguars, and will be in the hunt for a franchise quarterback — possibly even Texas’ Arch Manning — pretty much regardless of what happens this season.
Manning doesn’t know where his grandfather, Archie Manning, got the notion that Arch is definitely staying at Texas after this season, and said he texted to apologize about that viral quote. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam also predicted early this month that Arch will stay at Texas for two more seasons, but it won’t stop the Browns from sending a contingent of their VIPs to the Ohio State-Texas game on Aug. 30.
In the meantime, Gabriel, their third-round pick out of Oregon, and Sanders, their fifth-round pick out of Colorado, have played well this preseason and proven themselves worthy of a longer and more comprehensive look. They’ll continue to develop both, committing plenty of timing and resources to them.
In a 22-13 victory over the Eagles last Saturday, Gabriel demonstrated his quick decision-making, excellent mobility, and surprising arm strength. The week before against the Panthers, Sanders fueled his “Legendary” reputation with an excellent start, firing two pinpoint touchdown passes to Kaden Davis and putting three TDs on the board in his nine drives. Sanders has displayed an uncanny knack for touch and ball placement, especially for a rookie.
Both young QBs have shown potential to become NFL starters, and if the Browns find themselves with a surplus of starting-caliber quarterbacks, they’ll maximize their fortuitous problem.
From a fiscal standpoint, it makes total sense to keep all four. Their base salaries and cap numbers are as follows:
Joe Flacco ($4.25 million base, $2.854 million cap);
Kenny Pickett ($2.623 million base and cap);
third-round pick Dillon Gabriel; ($840,000 base, $1.132 million cap);
and fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders ($840,000 base, $951,845 cap.)
That’s a total of a little more than $7.6 million in cap space for all four.
Of course, they’re on a budget in the room because Deshaun Watson, who will be placed on reserve/Physically Unable to Perform on cutdown day, has two more actual years on his contract. His cap number is $35.971 million in 2025 and $80.716 million in 2026, with the latter due to be lowered again in 2026 and spread out to 2030.
In the meantime, the Browns will keep all four of their healthy QBs who participated in the battle for the starting job, and by the time it’s all said and done, all four might see playing time.
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